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A SOURCE BOOK OF 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY 



DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF EUROPEAN LIFE AND 

INSTITUTIONS FROM THE GERMAN INVASIONS 

TO THE RENAISSANCE 



EDITED BY 

FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, A. M. 

ASSISTANT IN HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
AND INSTRUCTOR IN SIMMONS COLLEGE 




NEW YORK • CINCINNATI ■:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



lUBSARY oToONQiSEsil 
|{ Two Copies Keceivc^j I 

APR 8 1908 

aoi)yri«ni tniry 
\/Vcn/ q iqt 7 

'COPY 8. 






COPYEIGHT, 1908, BY 

FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
w. p. I 



PREFACE 

This book has been prepared in consequence of a conviction, de- 
rived from some years of teaching experience, (1) that sources, of 
proper kind and in carefully regulated amount, can profitably be 
made use of by teachers and students of history in elementary coUege 
classes, in academies and preparatory schools, and in the more ad- 
vanced years of the average high school, and (2) that for mediaeval 
history there exists no published collection which is clearly adapted 
to practical conditions of work in such classes and schools. 

It has seemed to me that a source book designed to meet the re- 
quirements of teachers and classes in the better grade of secondary 
schools, and perhaps in the freshman year of college work, ought to 
comprise certain distinctive features, first, with respect to the char- 
acter of the selections presented, and, secondly, in regard to general 
arrangement and accompanying explanatory matter. In the choice 
of extracts I have sought to be guided by the following considera- 
tions: (1) that in aU cases the materials presented should be of real 
value, either for the historical information contained in them or for 
the more or less indirect light they throw upon mediaeval life or condi- 
tions; (2) that, for the sake of younger students, a relatively large pro- 
portion of narrative (annals, chronicles, and biography) be introduced 
and the purely documentary material be shghtly subordinated; (3) that, 
despite this principle, documents of vital importance, such as Magna 
Charta and Unam Sanctam, which cannot be ignored in even the most 
hasty or elementary study, be presented with some fulness ; and (4) that, 
in general, the rule should be to give longer passages from fewer sources, 
rather than more fragmentary ones from a wider range. 

With respect to the manner of presenting the selections, I have 
sought: (1) to offer careful translations — some made afresh from the 
printed originals, others adapted from good translations already avail- 
able — but with as much simplification and modernization of language 
as close adherence to the sense wiU permit. Literal, or nearly literal, 

3 



4 PREFACE 

translations are obviously desirable for maturer students, but, because 
of the involved character of mediaeval writings, are rarely readable, 
and are as a rule positively repellent to the young mind; (2) to pro- 
vide each selection, or group of selections, with an introductory ex- 
planation, containing the historical setting of the extract, with perhaps 
some comment on its general significance, and also a brief sketch of 
the writer, particularly when he is an authority of exceptional im- 
portance, as Einhard, Joinville, or Froissart ; and (3) to supply, in foot- 
notes, somewhat detailed aid to the understanding of obscure allusions, 
omitted passages, and especially place names and technical terms. 

For permission to reprint various translations, occasionally verbatim 
but usually in adapted form, I am under obligation to the following: 
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., publishers of Miss Henry's trans- 
lation of Dante's De Monarchia; Messrs. Henry Holt and Co., 
publishers of Lee's Source Book of English History; Messrs. Ginn and 
Co., publishers of Robinson's Readings in European History; Messrs. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, pubhshers of Thatcher and McNeal's Source 
Book for Mediaeval History; Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, publishers 
of Robinson and Rolfe's Petrarch; and Professor W. E. Lingelbach, of 
the University of Pennsylvania, representing the University of Penn- 
sylvania Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European 
History. 

In the preparation of the book I have received invaluable assistance 
from numerous persons, among whom the following, at least, should 
be named: Professor Samuel B. Harding, of the University of Indiana, 
who read the entire work in manuscript and has followed its progress 
from the first with discerning criticism; Professor Charles H. Haskins, 
of Harvard University, who has read most of the proof-sheets, and 
whose scholarship and intimate acquaintance with the problems of 
history teaching have contributed a larger proportion of whatever 
merits the book possesses than I dare attempt to reckon up; and 
Professors Charles Gross and Ephraim Emerton, likewise of Harvard, 
whose instruction and counsel have helped me over many hard places. 

The final word must be reserved for my wife, who, as careful amanu- 
ensis, has shared the burden of a not altogether easy task. 

FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG. 

Cambridge, Mass. 



INTRODUCTION 

THE NATURE AND USE OF HISTORICAL SOURCES 

If one proposes to write a history of the times of Abraham Lincohi, 
how shall one begin, and how proceed? Obviously, the first thing 
needed is information, and as much of it as can be had. But how shall 
information, accurate and trustworthy, be obtained? Of course there 
are plenty of books on Lincoln, and histories enough covering the 
period of his career to fill shelf upon shelf. It would be quite possible 
to spread some dozens of these before one's self and, drawing simply 
from them, work out a history that would read well and perhaps 
have a wide sale. And such a book might conceivably be worth while. 
But if you were reading it, and were a bit disposed to query into the 
accuracy of the statements made, you would probably find yourself 
wondering before long just where the writer got his authority for this 
or that assertion ; and if, in foot-note or appendix, he should seem to 
satisfy your curiosity by citing some other biography or history, you 
would be quite justified in feeling that, after all, your inquiry remained 
unanswered, — for whence did this second writer get his authority? If 
you were thus persistent you would probably get hold of the volume 
The question referred to and verify, as we say, the statements of fact 
in a book *-*^ opinion attributed to it. When you came upon them 

of history you might find it there stated that the point in ques- 

tion is clearly established from certain of Lincoln's own letters or 
speeches, which are thereupon cited, and perhaps quoted in part. 
At last you would be satisfied that the thing must very probably be 
true, for there you would have the words of Lincoln himself upon it; 
or, on the other hand, you might discover that your first writer had 
merely adopted an opinion of somebody else which did not have behind 
it the warrant of any first-hand authority. In either case you might 
well wonder why, instead of using and referring only to books of other 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION 

later authors like himself, he did not go directly to Lincoln's own works, 
get his facts from them, and give authority for his statements at first 
hand. And if you pushed the matter farther it would very soon occur 
to you that there are some books on Lincoln and his period which are 
not carefully written, and therefore not trustworthy, and that your 
author may very well have used some of these, falling blindly into their 
errors and at times wholly escaping the correct interpretation of things 
which could be had, in incontrovertible form, from Lincoln's own pen, 
or from the testimony of his contemporaries. In other words, you 
would begin to distrust him because he had failed to go to the 
"sources" for his materials, or at least for a verification of them. 

How, then, shall one proceed in the writing of history in order to, 
make sure of the indispensable quality of accuracy? Clearly, the first 
thing to be borne in mind is the necessity of getting information through 
channels which are as direct and immediate as possible. Just as in 
ascertaining the facts regarding an event of to-day it would be de- 
sirable to get the testimony of an eye-witness rather than an account 
after it had passed from one person to another, suffering more or less 
distortion at every step, so, in seeking a trustworthy description of the 
The superior- battle of Salamis or of the personal habits of Charle- 
sources of magne, the proper course would be to lay hold first of 

knowledge all of whatever evidence concerning these things has 

come down from Xerxes's or Charlemagne's day to our own, and to put 
larger trust in this than in more recent accounts which have been played 
upon by the imagination of their authors and perhaps rendered wholly 
misleading by errors consciously or unconsciously injected into them. 
The writer of history must completely divest himself of the notion that 
a thing is true simply because he finds it in print. He may, and 
should, read and consider well what others like himself have written 
upon his subject, but he should be wary of accepting what he finds in 
such books without himself going to the materials to which these 
writers have resorted and ascertaining whether they have been used 
with patience and discrimination. If his subject is Lincoln, he should, 
for example, make sure above everything else, of reading exhaustively 
the letters, speeches, and state papers which have been preserved^ 
in print or in manuscript, from Lincoln's pen. Similarly, he should 
examine with care all letters and communications of every kind trans- 



INTRODUCTION 7 

mitted to Lincoln. Then he should familiarize himself with the writ- 
ings of the leading men of Lincoln's day, whether in the form of letters, 
diaries, newspaper and magazine articles, or books. The files, indeed, 
of aU the principal periodicals of the time should be gone through in 
quest of information or suggestions not to be found in other places. 
And, of course, the vast mass of public and official records would be 
invaluable — the journals of the two houses of Congress, the dispatches, 
orders, and accounts of the great executive departments, the arguments 
before the courts, with the resulting decisions, and the all but number- 
less other papers which throw light upon the practical conditions and 
achievements of the governing powers, national, state, and local. How- 
ever much one may be able to acquire from the reading of later biog- 
raphies and histories, he ought not to set about the writing of a new 
book of the sort unless he is willing to toil patiently through all these 
first-hand, contemporary materials and get some warrant from them, 
as being nearest the events themselves, for everything of importance 
that he proposes to say. This rule is equally applicable and urgent 
whatever the subject in hand — whether the age of Pericles, the Roman 
Empire, the Norman conquest of England, the French Revolution, or 
the administrations of George Washington — though, obviously, the 
character and amount of the contemporary materials of which one can 
avail himself varies enormously from people to people and from period 
to period. 

History is unlike many other subjects of study in that our knowl- 
edge of it, at best, must come to us almost wholly through indirect 
means. That is to say, all our information regarding the past, and most 
of it regarding our own day, has to be obtained, in one form or another, 
through other people, or the remains that they have left behind them. 
No one of us can know much about even so recent an event as the 
Indirect Spanish-American War, except by reading newspapers, 

all^hfstorical magazines and books, talking with men who had part 
knowledge in it, or listening to public addresses concerning it — 

all indirect means. And, of course, when we go back of the memory of 
men now living, say to the American Revolution, nobody can lay claim 
to an iota of knowledge which he has not acquired through indirect 
channels. In physics or chemistry, if a student desires, he can repro- 
duce in the laboratory practically any phenomenon which he finds 



8 INTRODUCTION 

described in his books; he need not accept the mere word of his text 
or of his teacher, but can actually behold the thing with his own eyes. 
Such experimentation, however, has no place in the study of history, 
for by no sort of art can a Roman legion or a German comitatus or the 
battle of Hastings be reproduced before mortal eye. 

For our knowledge of history we are therefore obliged to rely abso- 
lutely upon human testimony, in one form or another, the value of 
such testimony depending principally upon the directness with which 
it comes to us from the men and the times under consideration. If it 
reaches us with reasonable directness, and represents a well authenticated 
means of studying the period in question from the writings or other 
An " histor- traces left by that period, it is properly to be included 
ical source " in the great body of materials which we have come to 
call historical sources. An historical source may be 
defined as any product of human activity, or existence that can be 
used as direct evidence in the study of man's past life and institutions. 
A moment's thought will suggest that there are " sources " of numerous 
and widely differing kinds. Roughly speaking, at least, they fall into 
two great groups: (1) those in writing and (2) those in some form other 
than writing. The first group is by far the larger and more important. 
Foremost in it stand annals, chronicles, and histories, written from time 
to time all along the line of human history, on the • cuneiform 
tablets of the Assyrians or the parchment rolls of the mediaeval monks, 
in the polished Latin of a Livy or the sprightly French of a Froissart. 
Works of pure literature also — epics, lyrics, dramas, essays — because 
of the light that they often throw upon the times in which they were 
written, possess a large value of the same general character. Of nearly 
equal importance is the great class of materials which may be called 
documentary^aws, charters, formulse, accounts, treaties, and official 
Written orders or instructions. These last are obviously of 

sources largest value in the study of social customs, land 

tenures, systems of government, the workings of courts, ecclesiastical 
organizations, and political agencies — in other words, of institutions — 
just as chronicles and histories are of greatest service in unraveling the 
narrative side of human affairs. 

Of sources which are not in the form of writing, the most important 
are: (1) implements of warfare, agriculture, household economy, and 



INTRODUCTION 9 

the chase, large quantities of which have been brought to light in 
various parts of the world, and which bear witness to the manner of 
life prevailing among the peoples who produced and used them; (2) coins, 
hoarded up in treasuries or buried in tombs or ruins of one sort or an- 
other, frequently preserving likenesses of important sovereigns, with 
Sources dates and other materials of use especially in fixing 

other than chronology; (3) works of art, surviving intact or with 

m wn ing losses or changes inflicted by the ravages of weather 

and human abuse — the tombs of. the Egyptians, the sculpture of the 
Greeks, the architecture of the Middle Ages, or the paintings of the 
Renaissance; (4) other constructions of a more practical character, 
particularly dwelling-houses, roads, bridges, aqueducts, walls, gates, 
fortresses, and ships, — some well preserved and surviving as they were 
first fashioned, others in ruins, and still others built over and more or 
less obscured by modern improvement or adaptation. 

These are some of the things to which the writer of history must go 
for his facts and for his inspiration, and it is to these that the 
student, whose business is to learn and not to write, ought occasionally 
to resort to enliven and supplement what he finds in the books. As 
there are many kinds of sources, so there are many ways in which such 
materials may be utilized. If, for example, you are studying the life of 
the Greeks and in that connection pay a visit to a museum of fine arts 
and scrutinize Greek statuary, Greek vases, and Greek coins, you 
are very clearly using sources. If your subject is the church life of 
the later Middle Ages and you journey to Rheims or Amiens or Paris 
to contemplate the splendid cathedrals in these cities, with their spires 
Various ^^^^ arches and ornamentation, you are, in every 

ways of us- proper sense, using sources. You are doing the same 

mg sources thing if you make an observation trip to the Egyptian 

pyramids, or to the excavated Roman forum, or if you traverse the 
line of old Watling Street — nay, if you but visit Faneuil Hall, or tramp 
over the battlefield of Gettysburg. Many of these more purely "mate- 
rial" sources can be made use of only after long and sometimes 
arduous journeys, or through the valuable, but somewhat less 
satisfactory, medium of pictures and descriptions. Happily, how- 
ever, the art of printing and the ])ra('tice of accumulating enormous 
libraries have made possible the indefinite duplication of written 



10 INTRODUCTION 

sources, and consequently the use of them at almost any time and in 
almost any place. There is but one Sphinx, one Parthenon, one Sistine 
Chapel; there are not many Roman roads, feudal castles, or Gothic 
cathedrals; but scarcely a library in any civilized country is without 
a considerable number of the monumental documents of human history 
— the funeral oration of Pericles, the laws of Tiberius Gracchus, Magna 
Charta, the theses of Luther, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the 
United States — not to mention the all but limitless masses of histories, 
biographies, poems, letters, essays, memoirs, legal codes, and official 
records of every variety which are available for any one who seriously 
desires to make use of them. 

But why should the younger student trouble himself, or be troubled, 
with any of these things? Might he not get all the history he can be 
expected to know from books written by scholars who have given their 
lives to exploring, organizing, and sifting just such sources? There can 
be no question that schools and colleges to-day have the use of better 
text-books in history than have ever before been available, and that 
truer notions of the subject in its various relations can be had from even 
the most narrow devotion to these texts than could be had from the 
study of their predecessors a generation ago. If the object of studying 
history were solely to acquire facts, it would, generally speaking, be a 
waste of time for high school or younger college students to wander far 
from text-books. But, assuming that history is studied not alone for 
the mastery of facts but also for the broadening of culture, and for cer- 
tain kinds of mental training, the properly regulated use of sources by the 
student himself is to be justified on at least three grounds: (1) Sources 
The value h.Q\^ to an understanding of the point of view of the men, 

of sources and the spirit of the age under consideration. The 

ability to dissociate one's self from his own surroundings 
and habits of thinking and to put himself in the company of Caesar, of 
Frederick Barbarossa, or of Innocent III., as the occasion may require, 
is the hardest, but perhaps the most valuable, thing that the student 
of history can hope to get. (2) Sources add appreciably to the vivid- 
ness and reality of history. However well-written the modern descrip- 
tion of Charlemagne, for example, the student ought to find a some- 
what different flavor in the account by the great Emperor's own friend 
and secretary, Einhard; and, similarly, Matthew Paris's picture of 



INTRODUCTION 11 

the raving and fuming of Frederick II. at his excommunication by 
Pope Gregory ought to bring the reader into a somewhat more intimate 
appreciation of the character of the proud German-Sicihan emperor. 
(3) The use of sources, in connection with the reading of secondary 
works, may be expected to train the student, to some extent at least, 
in methods of testing the accuracy of modern writers, especially when 
the subject in hand is one that lends itself to a variety of interpreta- 
tions. In the sources the makers of history, or those who stood close 
to them, are allowed to speak for themselves, or for their times, and the 
study of such materials not only helps plant in the student's mind the 
conception of fairness and impartiality in judging historical characters, 
but also cultivates the habit of tracing things back to their origins and 
verifying what others have asserted about them. So far as practicable 
the student of history, from the age of fourteen and onwards, should be 
encouraged to develop the critical or judicial temperament along with 
the purely acquisitive. 

In preparing a source book, such as the present one, the purpose is to 
further the study of the most profitable sources by removing some of 
the greater difficulties, particularly those of accessibility and language. 
Clearly impracticable as anything like historical "research" undoubt- 
edly is for younger students, it is none the less believed that there are 
abundant first-hand materials in the range of history which such stu- 
dents will not only find profitable but actually enjoy, and that any 
Simplicity acquaintance with these things that may be acquired 

mediaeval ^^ earlier studies will be of inestimable advantage sub- 

sources sequently. It is furthermore believed, contrary to the 

assertions that one sometimes hears, that the history of the Middle 
Ages lends itself to this sort of treatment with scarcely, if any, less 
facility than that of other periods. Certainly Gregory's Clovis, Asser's 
Alfred, Einhard's Charlemagne, and Joinville's St. Louis are living per- 
sonalities, no less vividly portrayed than the heroes of a boy's story- 
book. Tacitus's description of the early Germans, Ammianus's account 
of the crossing of the Danube by the Visigoths and his pictures of the 
Huns, Bede's narrative of the Saxon invasion of Britain, the affec- 
tionate letter Stephen of Blois to his wife and children, the portrayal 
of the sweet-spirited St. Francis by the Three Companions, and Frois- 
sart's free and easy sketch of the battle of Crecy are all interesting, easily 



12 INTEODUCTION 

comprehended, and even adapted to whet the appetite for a larger ac- 
quaintance with these various people and events. Even solid docu- 
ments, like the kSalic law, the Benedictine Rule, the Peace of Con- 
stance, and the Golden Bull, if not in themselves exactly attractive, 
may be made to have a certain interest for the younger student when 
he realizes that to know mediaeval history at all he is under the impera- 
tive necessity of getting much of the framework of things either from 
such materials or from text-books which essentially reproduce them. 
It is hoped that at least a reasonable proportion of the selections 
herewith presented may serve in some measure to overcome for the 
student the remote and intangible character which the Middle Ages 
have much too commonly, though perhaps not unnaturally, been felt 
to possess. 



CONTENTS 

SECTION PAGE 

CHAPTER I.— THE EARLY GERMANS 

1. A Sketch by Caesar 19 

2. A Description by Tacitus . . . ' . . . . 23 

CHAPTER II.— THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

3. The Visigoths Cross the Danube (376) . . . . 32 

4. The Battle of Adrianopls (378) 37 

CHAPTER III.— THE HUNS 

5. Description by a GriEco-Roman Poet and a Roman Historian 42 

CHAPTER IV.— THE EARLY FRANKS 

6. The Deeds of Clovis as Related by Gregory of Tours . . 47 

7. The Law of the Salian Franks . . . , . . 59 

CHAPTER v.— THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN 
BRITAIN 

8. The Saxon Invasion (cir. 449) . . . . . .68 

9. The Mission of Augustine (597) . . ' . . . .72 

CHAPTER VI.— THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

10. Pope Leo's Sermon on the Petrine Supremacy . . 78 

11. The Rule of St. Benedict 83 

12. Gregory the Great oh the Life of the Pastor ... 90 

CHAPTER VII.— THE RISE OF MOH/VMMEDANISM 

13. Selections from the Koraza 97 

13 



14 CONTENTS 

SECTION PAi 5 

CHAPTER VIII.— THE BEGINNINGS OF THE 
CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY OF FRANKISH KINGS 

14. Pepin the Short Takes the Title of King (751) . . . 105 

CHAPTER IX.— THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

15. Charlemagne the Man 108 

16. The War with the Saxons (772-803) 114 

17. The Capitulary Concerning the Saxon Territory (cir. 780) 118 

18. The Capitulary Concerning the Royal Domains (cir. 800) 124 

19. An Inventory of one of Charlemagne's Estates . . 127 

20. Charlemagne Crowned Emperor (800) .... 130 

21. The General Capitulary for the Missi (802) . . .134 

22. A Letter of Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad . . .141 

23. The Carolingian Revival of Learning . . . .144 

CHAPTER X.— THE ERA OF THE LATER 
CAROLINGIANS 

24. The Oaths of Strassburg (842) 149 

25. ^-^he Treaty of Verdun (843) .154 

26. A Chronicle of the Frankish Kingdom in .the Ninth Century 157 

27. The Northmen in the Country of the Franks . . . 163 

28. Later Carolingian Efforts to Preserve Order . . . 173 

29. The Election of Hugh Capet (987) 177 

CHAPTER XL— ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND 
IN PEACE 

30. The Danes in England 181 

31. Alfred's Interest in Education . . . . . . I.'s5 

32. Alfred's Laws 1' 4; 

CHAPTER XII.— THE ORDEAL 

33. Tests by Hot Water, Cold Water, and Fire , . .196 

CHAPTER XIIL— THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

34. Older Institutions Involving Elements of FeudaUsm . 2^*? 

35. The Granting of Fiefs '. .^' 



CONTENTS 15 

SECfl^ON PAGE 

36. The Ceremonies of Homage and Fealty .... 216 

37. The Mutual Obligations of Lords and Vassals . . .220 

38. Some of the More Important Rights of the Lord . . 221 
39.-" The Peace and the Truce of God 228 

CHAPTER XIV.— THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

40. The Battle of Hastings: the English and the Normans . 233 

41. William the Conqueror as Man and as King . . . 241 

CHAPTER XV.— THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 
OF THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, AND TWELFTH 
CENTURIES 

42. The Foundation Charter of the Monastery of Cluny (910) 245 

43. The Early Career of St. Bernard and the Founding of Clair- 

vaux 250 

44. A Description of Clairvaux . 258 

CHAPTER XVI.— THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTI- \. 
^_^ TURE 

45. Gregory "^I^ Conception of the Papal Authority . . 261 

46. ^ Letter of Gregory VII. to Henry IV. (1075) . . .264 
' Henry IV. 's Reply to Gregory's Letter (1076) . . .269 

Henry IV. Deposed by Gregory (1076) . . . .272 
The Penance of Henry IV. at Canossa (1077) . . .273 
The Concordat of Worms (1122) 278 

V CHAPTER XVII.— THE CRUSADES 

5i;^ Speech of Pope Urban II. at the Council of Clermont (1095) 282 

52. The Starting of the Crusaders (1096) 288 

53. A Letter from a Crusader to his Wife . , . . 291 

CHAPTER XVIII.— THE GREAT CHARTER 

54., . The Winning of the Great Charter . . . . .297 
5. 1..V Extracts from the Charter 303 



16 CONTENTS 

SECTION PAdE 

CHAPTER XIX.— THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

56. The Character and Deeds of the King as Described by 

Joinville 311 

CHAPTER XX.— MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND 
ACTIVITY 

57. Some Twelfth Century Town Charters . . . .325 

58. The Colonization of Eastern Germany .... 330 

59. The League of Rhenish Cities (1254) . . . .334 

CHAPTER XXL— UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT 
LIFE 

60. Privileges Granted to Students and Masters . . . 340 

61. The Foundation of the University of Heidelberg (1386) . 345 

62. Mediaeval Students' Songs 351 

CHAPTER XXII.— THE FRIARS 

63. The Life of St. Francis 362 

64. The Rule of St. Francis . . . . . . .373 

65. The Will of St. Francis . . . . . . .376 

CHAPTER XXIIL— THE PAPACY AND THE TEM- 
PORAL POWERS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

66. The Interdict Laid on France by Innocent III. (1200) . 380 

67. The Bull "Unam Sanctam" of Boniface VIII. (1302) . 383 

68. The Great Schism and the Councils of Pisa and Constance 389 

69. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) . . .393 

CHAPTER XXIV.— THE EMPIRE IN THE TWELFTH, 
THIRTEENTH, AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 

70. The Peace of Constance (1183) 398 

71. Current Rumors Concerning the Life and Character of 

Frederick II 402 

72. The Golden Bull of Charles IV. (1356) . . . .409 



CONTENTS 17 

SECTION . PAGE 

CHAPTER XXV.— THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

73. An Occasion of War between the Kings of England and France 418 

74. Edward III. Assumes the Arms and Title of the "King of 

France 421 

75. The Naval Battle of Sluys (1340) 424 

76. The Battle of Crecy (1346) 427 

77. The Sack of Limoges (1370) 436 

78. The Treaties of Bretigny (1360) and Troyes (1420) . . 439 

CHAPTER XXVI.— THE BEGINNINGS OF THE 
ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

79. Dante's Defense of Italian as a Literary Language . 445 

80. Dante's Conception of the Imperial Power . . 452 

81. Petrarch's Love of the Classics . . . . . . 462 

82. Petrarch's Letter to Posterity 469 

CHAPTER XXVIL— FORESHADOWINGS OF THE 
REFORMATION 

83. The Reply of Wyclif to the Summons of Pope Urban VI. 

(1384) . .474 



Med. Hist.— 2 



A SOURCE BOOK OF MEDI^EYAL 
HISTORY 

CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLY GERMANS 

1. A Sketch by Caesar 

One of the most important steps in the expansion of the Roman 
Republic was the conquest of Gaul by Julius Csesar just before the middle 
of the first century B.C. Through this conquest Rome entered de- 
liberately upon the policy of extending her dominion northward from 
the Mediterranean and the Alps into the regions of western and central 
Europe known to us to-day as France and Germany. By their wars 
in this direction the Romans were brought into contact with peoples 
concerning whose manner of Ufe they had hitherto known very little. 
There were two great groups of these peoples — the Gauls and the 
Germans — each divided and subdivided into numerous tribes and clans. 
In general it may be said that the Gauls occupied what we now call 
France and the Germans what we know as Belgium, Holland, Denmark, 
Germany, and Austria. The Rhine marked a pretty clear boundary 
between them. 

During the years 58-50 b.c, Julius Csesar, who had risen to the 
proconsulship through a long series of offices and honors at Rome, 
served the state as leader of five distinct military expeditions in this 
country of the northern barbarians. The primary object of these 
campaigns was to establish order among the turbulent tribes of Gauls 
and to prepare the way for the extension of Roman rule over them. 
This great task was performed very successfully, but in accomplishing 
it Caesar found it necessary to go somewhat farther than had at first 
been intended. In the years 55 and 54 B.C., he made two expeditions 
to Britain to punish the natives for giving aid to their Celtic kinsfolk 

19 



20 THE EARLY GERMANS 

in Gaul, and in 55 and 53 he crossed the Rhine to compel the Germans 
to remain on their own side of the river and to cease troubling the Gauls 
by raids and invasions, as they had recently been doing. When (about 
51 B.C.) he came to write his Commentaries on the Gallic War, it is 
very natural that he should have taken care to give a brief sketch of 
the leading peoples whom he had been fighting, that is, the Gauls, the 
Britons, and the Germans. There are two places in the Commentaries 
where the Germans are described at some length. At the beginning 
of Book IV. there is an account of the particular tribe known as the 
Suevi, and in the middle of Book VI. there is a longer sketch of the 
Germans in general. This latter is the passage translated below. Of 
course we are not to suppose that Caesar's knowledge of the Germans 
was in any sense thorough. At no time did he get far into their 
country, and the people whose manners and customs he had an 
opportunity to observe were only those who were pressing down upon, 
and occasionally across, the Rhine boundary — a mere fringe of the 
great race stretching back to the Baltic and, at that time, far eastward 
into modern Russia. We may be sure that many of the more remote 
German tribes lived after a fashion quite different from that which 
Caesar and his legions had an opportunity to observe on the Rhine- 
Danube frontier. Still, Caesar's account, vague and brief as it is, has 
an importance that can hardly be exaggerated. These early Germans 
had no written literature and but for the descriptions of them left by 
a few Roman writers, such as Csesar, we should know almost nothing 
about them. If we bear in mind that the account in the Commentaries 
was based upon very keen, though limited, observation, we can get out 
of it a good deal of interesting information concerning the early an- 
cestors of the great Teutonic peoples of the world to-day. 

Source — Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico ["The Gallic War"], Bk. VI., 
Chaps. 21-23. 

21. The customs of the Germans differ widely from those of 
the Gauls; ^ for neither have they Druids to preside over religious 

1 In chapters 11-20, immediately preceding the present passage, Csesar 
gives a comparatively full and minute description of Gallic life and institu- 
tions. He knew more about the Gauls than about the Germans, and, 
besides, it was his experiences among them that he was writing about 
primarily. 



A SKETCH BY C^SAR ^1 

services/ nor do they give mucli attention to sacrifices. They 
count in the numl^er of their gods tliose only wliom they can 
Their see, and by whose favors they are clearly aided; 

religion ^j^^^ .^ ^^ ^^^^ ^-^^ g^^^ Vulcan,^ and the Moon. 

Of other deities they have never even heard. Their whole life 
is spent in hunting and in war. From childhood they are trained 
in labor and hardship. . . . 

22. They are not devoted to agriculture, and the greater 
portion of their food consists of milk, cheese, and flesh. No one 
Their system owns a particular piece of land, with fixed limits, 
of land tenure |^^^ each year the magistrates and the chiefs 
assign to the clans and the bands of kinsmen who have assembled 
together as much land as they think proper, and in whatever 
place they desire, and the next year compel them to move to 
some other place. They give many reasons for this custom — 
that the people may not lose their zeal for war through habits 
established by prolonged attention to the cultivation of the 
soil; that they may not be eager to acquire large possessions, 
and that the stronger may not drive the weaker from their 
property; that they may not build too carefully, in order to 
avoid cold and heat; that the love of money may not spring up, 
from which arise quarrels and dissensions; and, finally, that the 
common people may live in contentment, since each person 
sees that his wealth is kept equal to that of the most powerful. 

23. It is a matter of the greatest glory to the tribes to lay 
waste, as widely as possible, the lands bordering their territory, 
thus making them uninhabitable.^ They regard it as the best 

1 The Druids were priests who formed a distinct and very influential 
class among the Gauls. They ascertained and revealed the will of the gods 
and were supreme in the government of the tribes. Druids existed also 
among the Britons. 

2 By Vulcan Csesar means the German god of fire. 

3 Of the Suevi, a German tribe living along the upper course of the Danube, 
Caesar says: "They consider it their greatest glory as a nation that the lands 
about their territories lie unoccupied to a very great extent, for they think 
that by this it is shown that a great number of nations cannot withstand 
their power; and thus on one side of the Suevi the lands are said to lie 
desolate for about six hundred miles." — Gallic War, Bk. IV., Chap. 3. 



22 THE EARLY GERMANS 

proof of their valor that their neighbors are forced to withdraw 

from those lands and hardly any one dares set foot there; at the 

same time they think that they will thus be more secure, since 

the fear of a sudden invasion is removed. When a tribe is either 

repelling an invasion or attacking an outside people, magistrates 

T •, ■■ are chosen to lead in the war, and these are given 

Leaders and > & 

officers in war the power of life and death. In times of peace 
there is no general magistrate, but the chiefs of 
the districts and cantons render justice among their own people 
and settle disputes.^ Robbery, if committed beyond the borders 
of the tribe, is not regarded as disgraceful, and they say that it is 
practised for the sake of training the youth and preventing 
idleness. When any one of the chiefs has declared in an assembly 
that he is going to be the leader of an expedition, and that 
those who wish to follow him should give in their names, they 
who approve of the undertaking, and of the man, stand up and 
promise their assistance, and are applauded by the people. 
Such of these as do not then follow him are looked upon as 
deserters and traitors, and from that day no one has any faith 
in them. 

To mistreat a guest they consider to be a crime. They protect 
German from injury those who have come among them for 

hospitality g^^y purpose whatever, and regard them as sacred. 

To 'them the houses of all are open and food is freely supplied. 

1 This statement is an instance of Caesar's vagueness, due possibly to haste 
in writing, but more likely to lack of definite information. How large these 
districts and cantons were, whether they had fixed boundaries, and how 
the chiefs rendered justice in them are things we should like to know but 
are not told. 



A DESCRIPTION BY TACITUS 23 

2. A Description by Tacitus 

Tacitus (54-119)/ who is sometimes credited with being the 
greatest of Roman historians, published his treatise on the Origin, 
Location, Manners, and Inhabitants of Germany in the year 98. This 
was about a century and a half after Cgesar wrote his Commentaries. 
During this long interval we have almost no information as to how the 
Germans were living or what they were doing. There is much uncer- 
tainty as to the means by which Tacitus got his knowledge of them. We 
may be reasonably sure that he did not travel extensively through the 
country north of the Rhine; there is, in fact, not a shred of evidence 
that he ever visited it at all. He tells us that he made use of Csesar's 
account, but this was very meager and could not have been of much 
service. We are left to surmise that he drew most of his information 
from books then existing but since lost, such as the writings of 
Posidonius of Rhodes (136-51 b.c.) and Pliny the Elder (23-79). 
These sources were doubtless supplemented by the stories of officials 
and traders who had been among the Germans and were afterwards 
interviewed by the historian. Tacitus's essay, therefore, while written 
with a desire to tell the truth, was apparently not based on first-hand 
information. The author nowhere says that he had seen this or that 
feature of German life. We may suppose that what he really did was 
to gather up all the stories and reports regarding the German barbarians 
which were already known to Roman traders, travelers, and soldiers, 
sift the true from the false as well as he could, and write out in first class 
Latin the little book which we know as the Germania. The theory that 
the work was intended as a satire,, or sermon in morals, for the benefit 
of a corrupt Roman people has been quite generally abandoned, and 
this for the very good reason that there is nothing in either the treatise's 
contents or style to warrant such a belief. Tacitus wrote the book 
because of his general interest in historical and geographical subjects, 
and also, perhaps, because it afforded him an excellent opportunity to 
display a literary skill in which he took no small degree of pride. That 
it was published separately instead of in one of his larger histories may 
have been due to public interest in the subject during Trajan's wars in 
the Rhine country in the years 98 and 99. The first twenty-seven 

1 All dates from this point, unless otherwise indicated, are a.d. 



24 THE EAKLY GERMANS 

chapters, from which the selections below are taken, treat of the Germans 
in general — their origin, religion, family life, occupations, military tac- 
tics, amusements, land system, government, and social classes; the last 
nineteen deal with individual tribes and are not so accurate or so valu- 
able. It will be found interesting to compare what Tacitus says with 
what Csesar says when both touch upon the same topic. In doing so it 
should be borne in mind that there was a difference in time of a century 
and a half between the two writers, and also that while Tacitus probably 
did not write from experience among the Germans, as Csesar did, he 
nevertheless had given the subject a larger amount of deliberate study. 

Source — C. Cornelius Tacitus, De Origine, Situ, Moribus, ac PopuKs Ger- 
manorum [known commonly as the "Germania"], Chaps. 4-24, 
passim. Adapted from translation by Alfred J. Church and Wil- 
liam J. Brodribb (London, 1868), pp. 1-16. Text in numerous 
editions, as that of William F. Allen (Boston, 1882) and that of 
Henry Furneau (Oxford, 1894). 

. 4. For my own part, I agree with those who think that the 
tribes of Germany are free from all trace of intermarriage with 
Physical char- foreign nations, and that they appear as a dis- 
acteristics tinct, unmixed race, like none but themselves. 

Hence it. is that the same physical features are to be observed 
throughout so vast a population. All have fierce blue eyes, red- 
dish hair, and huge bodies fit only for sudden exertion. They are 
not very able to endure labor that is exhausting. Heat and thirst 
they cannot withstand at all, though to cold and hunger their 
climate and soil have hardened them. 

6. Iron is not plentiful among them, as may be inferred from 
the nature of their weapons.^ Only a few make use of swords or 
long lances. Ordinarily they carry a spear (which they call a 
framea), with a short and narrow head, but so sharp and easy to 
handle that the same weapon serves, according to circumstances, 
for close or distant conflict. As for the horse-soldier, he is satis- 
fied with a shield and a spear. The foot-soldiers also scatter 

1 In reality iron ore was abundant in the Germans' territory, but it was 
not until long after the time of Tacitus that much use began to be made of 
it. By the fifth century iron swords were common. 



A DESCRIPTION BY TACITUS 25 

showers of missiles, each man having several and hurling them 

to an immense distance, and being naked or lightly clad with a 

little cloak. They make no display in their equipment. Their 

shields alone are marked with fancy colors. Only a few have 

corselets/ and just one or two here and there a metal or leather 

„, . helmet.^. Their horses are neither beautiful nor 

Their weapons 

and mode of swift; nor are they taught various wheeling 

^ ^^^ movements after the Roman fashion, but are 

driven straight forward so as to make one turn to the right in 
such a compact body that none may be left behind another. On 
the whole, one would say that the Germans' chief strength is in 
their infantry. It fights along with the cavalry, and admirably 
adapted to the movements of the latter is the swiftness of certain 
foot-soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their 
country and placed in front of the battle line.^ The number of 
these is fixed, being a hundred from each 'pagus,'^ and from this 
they take their name among their countrymen, so that what was 
at the outset a mere number has now become a title of honor. 
Their line of battle is drawn up in the shape of a wedge. To 
yield ground, provided they return to the attack, is regarded as 
prudence rather than cowardice. The bodies of their slain 
they carry off, even when the battle has been indecisive. To 
abandon one's shield is the basest of crimes. A man thus dis- 
graced is not allowed to be present at the religious ceremonies, or 
to enter the council. Many, indeed, after making a cowardly 
escape from battle put an end to their infamy by hanging them- 
selves.^ . - 

1 Coats of mail. 

2 Defensive armor for the head and neck. 

3 See Cffisar's description of this mode of fighting. — Gallic War, Bk. I. , 
Chap. 48. 

4 The canton was linown to the Romans as a pagus and to the Ger- 
mans themselves as a gau. It was made up of a number of districts, or 
townships (Latin vicus, German dorf), and was itself a division of a tribe or 
nation. 

5 A later law of the Salian Franks imposed a fine of 120 denarii upon any 
man who should accuse another of throwing down his shield and running 
away, without being able to prove it" [see p. 64]. 



26 THE EARLY GERMANS 

7. They choose their kings ^ by reason of their birth, but their 
generals on the ground of merit. The kings do not enjoy un- 
hmited or despotic power, and even the generals command more 
by example than by authority. If they are energetic, if they take 
a prominent part, if they fight in the front, they lead because 
they are admired. But to rebuke, to imprison, even to flog, is 
allowed to the priests alone, and this not as a punishment, or at 
the general's bidding, but by the command of the god whom 
they believe to inspire the warrior. They also carry with them 
The Germans into battle certain figures and images taken 
in battle from their sacred groves.^ The thing that most 

strengthens their courage is the fact that their troops are not 
made up of bodies of men chosen by mere chance, but are ar- 
ranged by families and kindreds. Close by them, too, are those 
dearest to them, so that in the midst of the fight they can hear 
the shrieks of women and the cries of children. These loved ones 
are to every man the most valued witnesses of his valor, and at 
the same time his most generous applauders. The soldier brings 
his wounds to mother or wife, who shrinks not from counting 
them, or even demanding to see them, and who provides food 
for the warriors and gives them encouragement. 

11. About matters of small importance the chiefs alone take 
counsel, but the larger questions are considered by the entire 
tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests with the people 
the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. Except 
in the case of a sudden emergency, the people hold their assem- 
blies on certain fixed days, either at the new or the full moon; 

1 Many of the western tribes at the time Tacitus wrote did not have kings, 
though in eastern Germany the institution of kingship seems to have been 
quite general. The office, where it existed, was elective, but the people 
rarely chose a king outside of a privileged family, assumed to be of divine 
origin. 

2 Evidently these were not images of their gods, for in another place (Chap. 
9) Tacitus tells us that the Germans deemed it a dishonor to their deities to 
represent them in human form. The images were probably those of wild 
beasts, as the wolf of Woden (or Odin), or the ram of Tyr, and were national 
standards preserved with religious care in the sacred groves, whence they 
were brought forth when the tribe was on the point of going to war. 



A DESCRIP'riON BY TACITUS 27 

for these they consider the most suitable times for the transaction 
Their popular of business. Instead of counting by days, as we do, 
assemblies they count by nights, and in this way designate 

both their ordinary and their legal engagements. They regard 
the night as bringing on the day. Their freedom has one dis- 
advantage, in that they do not all come together at the same time, 
or as they are commanded, but two or three days are wasted in 
the delay of assembling. When the people present think proper, 
they sit down armed. Silence is proclaimed by the priests who, 
on these occasions, are charged with the duty of keeping order. 
The king or the leader speaks first, and then others in order, as 
age, or rank, or reputation in war, or eloquence, give them right. 
The speakers are heard more because of their ability to persuade 
than because of their power to command. If the speeches are 
displeasing to the people, they reject them with murmurs; if they 
are pleasing, they applaud by clashing their weapons together, 
which is the kind of applause most highly esteemed.-' 

13. They transact no public or private business without being 
armed, but it is not allowable for any one to bear arms until he 
has satisfied the tribe that he is fit to do so. Then, in the presence 
of the assembly, one of the chiefs, or the young man's father, or 
some kinsman, equips him with a shield and a spear. These arms 
are what the toga is with the Romans, the first honor with which 
a youth is invested. Up to this time he is regarded as merely a 
member of a household, but afterwards as a member of the state. 
Very noble birth, or important service rendered by the father, 
secures for a youth the rank of chief, and such lads attach them- 

1 The German popular assembly was simply the periodical gathering of 
free men in arms for the discussion and decision of important points of tribal 
policy. It was not a legislative body in the modern sense. Law among the 
Germans was immemorial custom, which, like religion, could be changed 
only by a gradual shifting of popular belief and practice. It was not " made " 
by any process of deliberate and immediate choice. Nevertheless, the asseim- 
bly constituted an important democratic element in the government, which 
operated in a measure to offset the aristocratic element represented by the 
principes and comitatus [see p. 28]. Its principal functions were the declar- 
ing of war and peace, the election of the kings, and, apparently, the hearing 
and deciding of graver cases at law. 



28 THE EARLY GERMANS 

selves to men of mature strength and of fully tested valor. It is no 
shame to be numbered among a chief's companions.^ The com- 
Th h" f c\ P^'^io^^s have different ranks in the band, accord- 
their compan- ing to the will of the chief; and there is great 
rivalry among the companions for first place in 
the chief's favor, as there is among the chiefs for the possession 
of the largest and bravest throng of followers. It is an honor, as 
well as a source of strength, to be thus always surrounded by a 
large body of picked youths, who uphold the rank of the chief in 
peace and defend him in war. The fame of such a chief and his 
band is not confined to their own tribe, but is spread among 
foreign peoples; they are sought out and honored with gifts in 
order to secure their alliance, for the reputation of such a band 
may decide a whole war. 

14. In battle it is considered shameful for the chief to allow 
any of his followers to excel him in valor, and for the followers 
not to equal their chief in deeds of bravery. To survive the chief 
and return from the field is a disgrace and a reproach for life. 
To defend and protect him, and to add to his renown by cour- 
ageous fighting is the height of loyalty. The chief fights for 
victory; the companions must fight for the chief. If their native 
state sinks into the sloth of peace and quiet, many noble youths 
The German voluntarily seek those tribes which are waging 
love of war some war, both because inaction is disliked by 
their race and because it is in war that they win renown most 
readily; besides, a chief can maintain a band only by war, for 
the men expect to receive their war-horse and their arms from 
their leader. Feasts and entertainments, though not elegant, are 
plentifully provided and constitute their only pay. The means of 
such liberality are best obtained from the booty of war. Nor 
are they as easily persuaded to plow the earth and to wait for the 
year's produce as to challenge an enemy and earn the glory of 

1 This relation of principes (chiefs) and comites (companions) is mentioned 
by Csesar [see p. 22]. The name by wliich the Romans designated the band 
of companions, or followers, of a German chieftain was comitatus. 



A DESCRIPTION BY TACITUS 29 

wounds. Indeed, they actually think it tame and stupid to 
acquire by the sweat of toil what they may win by their blood. ^ 

15. When not engaged in war they pass much of their time in 
the chase, and still more in idleness, giving themselves up to 
sleep and feasting. The bravest and most warlike do no work; 
they give over the management of the household, of the home, 
and of the land to the women, the old men, and the weaker 
Life in times members of the family, while they themselves 
of peace remain in the most sluggish inactivity. It is 
strange that the same men should be so fond of idleness and yet 
so averse to peace. ^ It is the custom of the tribes to make their 
chiefs presents of cattle and grain, and thus to give them the 
means of support.^ The chiefs are especially pleased with gifts 
from neighboring tribes, which are sent not only by individuals, 
but also by the state, such as choice steeds, heavy armor, trap- 
pings, and neck-chains. The Romans have now taught them to 
accept money also. 

16. It is a well-known fact that the peoples of Germany have 
no cities, and that they do not even allow buildings to be erected 
close together.^ They live scattered about, wherever a spring, or 

1 Apparently the Germans did not now care much more for agriculture 
than in the time of Csesar. The women, slaves, and old men sowed some 
seeds and gathered small harvests, but the warrior class held itself above 
such humble and unexciting employment. The raising of cattle afforded 
a principal means of subsistence, though hunting and fishing contributed 
considerably. 

2 Compare the Germans and the North American Indians in this respect. 
The great contrast between these two peoples lay in the capacity of the one 
and the comparative incapacity of the other for development. 

3 The Germans had no system of taxation on land or other property, such 
as the Romans had and such as we have to-day. It was not until well to- 
ward the close of the Middle Ages that the governments of kingdoms built 
up by Germanic peoples in western Europe came to be maintained by any- 
thing like what we would call taxes in the modern sense. 

4 The lack of cities and city life among the Germans struck Tacitus with 
the greater force because of the complete dominance of city organization to 
which he, as a Roman, was accustomed. The Greek and Roman world was 
made up, in the last analysis, of an aggregation of civitates, or city states. 
Among the ancient Greeks these had usually been independent; among the 
Romans they were correlated under the greater or lesser control of a cen- 
tralized government; but among the Germans of Tacitus's time, and long 
after, the mixed agricultural and nomadic character of the people effectually 



30 THE EARLY GERMANS 

a meadow, or a wood has attracted them. Their villages are not 
arranged in the Roman fashion, with the buildings connected 
and joined together, but every person surrounds his dwelling 
with an open space, either as a precaution against the disasters 
Lack of cities ^^ ^^^' ^^ because they do not know how to build. 
and towns They make no use of stone or brick, but employ 

wood for all purposes. Their buildings are mere rude masses, 
without ornament or attractiveness, although occasionally they 
are stained in part with a kind of clay which is so clear and 
bright that it resembles painting, or a colored design. . . . 

23. A liquor for drinking is made out of barley, or other grain, 
and fermented so as to be somewhat like wine. The dwellers 

^ Their food along the river-bank ^ also buy wine from traders. 
and drink Their food is of a simple variety, consisting of 

wild fruit, fresh 'game, and curdled milk. They satisfy their 
hunger without making much preparation of cooked dishes, and 
without the use of any delicacies at all. In quenching their 
thirst they are not so moderate. If they are supplied with as 
much as they desire to drink, they will be overcome by their 
own vices as easily as by the arms of an enemy. 

24, At all their gatherings there is one and the same kind of 
amusement. This is the dancing of naked youths amid swords and 
German lances that all the time endanger their lives. Ex- 
amusements perience gives them skill, and skill in turn gives 
grace. They scorn to receive profit or pay, for, however reckless 
their pastime, its reward is only the pleasure of the spectators. 
Strangely enough, they make games of chance a serious employ- 
ment, even when sober, and so venturesome are they about win- 
ning or losing that, when every other resource has failed, on the 
final throw of the dice they will stake even their own freedom. 

prevented the development of anything even approaching urban organiza- 
tion. Their life was that of the forest and the pasture, not that of forum, 
theatre, and circus. 

1 That is, on the Rhine, where traders from the south brought in wines and 
other Roman products. The drink which the Germans themselves manu- 
factured was, of course, a kind of beer. 



A DESCRIPTION BY TACITUS 31 

He who loses goes into voluntary slavery and, though the younger 
and stronger of the players, allows himself to be bound and sold. 
Such is their stubborn persistency in a bad practice, though they 
themselves call it honor. Slaves thus acquired the owners trade 
off as speedily as possible to rid themselves of the scandal of 
such a victory. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

3. The Visigoths Cross the Danube (376) 

The earliest invasion of the Roman Empire which resulted in the per- 
manent settlement of a large and united body of Germans on Roman 
soil was that of the Visigoths in the year 376. This invasion was 
very far, however, from marking the first important contact of the Ger- 
man and Roman peoples. As early as the end of the second century 
B.C. the incursions of the Cimbri and Teutones (113-101) into southern 
Gaul and northern Italy had given Rome a suggestion of the danger 
which threatened from the northern barbarians. Half a century later, 
the Gallic campaigns of Csesar brought the two peoples into conflict for 
the first time in the region of the later Rhine boundary, and had the 
very important effect of preventing the impending Gernjanization of 
Gaul and substituting the extension of Roman power and civilization in 
that quarter. Roman imperial plans on the north then developed along 
ambitious lines until the year 9 a.d., when the legions of the Emperor 
Augustus, led by Varus, were defeated, and in large part annihilated, in 
the great battle of the Teutoberg Forest and the balance was turned 
forever against the Romanization of the Germanic countries. There- 
after for a long time a state of equilibrium was preserved along the 
Rhine-Danube frontier, though after the Marcomannic wars in the lat- 
ter half of the second century the scale began to incline more and more 
against the Romans, who were gradually forced into the attitude of 
defense against a growing disposition of the restless Germans to push 
the boundary farther south. 

During the more than three and a half centuries intervening between 
the battle of the Teutoberg and the crossing of the Danube by the Visi- 
goths, the intermingling of the two peoples steadily increased. On the 
one hand were numerous Roman travelers and traders who visited the 

32 



THE CROSSING OF THE DANUBE 33 

Germans living along the frontier and learned what sort of people they 
were. The soldiers of the legions stationed on the Rhine and Danube 
also added materially to Roman knowledge in this direction. But much 
more important was the influx of Germans into the Empire to serve as 
soldiers or to settle on lands allotted to them by the government. Owing 
to a general decline of population, and especially to the lack of a sturdy 
middle class, Rome found it necessary to fill up her army with foreigners 
and to reward them with lands lying mainly near the frontiers, but often 
in the very heart of the Empire. The over-population of Germany fur- 
nished a large class of excellent soldiers who were ready enough to accept 
the pay of the Roman emperor for service in the legions, even if rendered, 
as it often was, against their kinsmen who were menacing the weakened 
frontier. From this source the Empire had long been receiving a large 
infusion of German blood before any considerable tribe came within its 
bounds to settle in a body. Indeed, if there had occurred no sudden and 
startling overflows of population from the Germanic countries, such as 
the Visigothic invasion, it is quite possible that the Roman Empire 
might yet have fallen completely into the hands of the Germans by 
the quiet and gradual processes just indicated. As it was, the pres- 
sure from advancing Asiatic peoples on the east was too great to be 
withstood, and there resulted, between the fourth and sixth centuries, a 
series of notable invasions which left almost the entire Western Empire 
parceled out among new Germanic kingdoms established by force on 
the ruins of the once invincible Roman power. The breaking of the 
frontier by the West Goths (to whom the Emperor Aurelian, in 270, 
had abandoned the rich province of Dacia), during the reign of Gratlan 
in the West and of Valens in the East, was the first conspicuous step 
in this great transforming movement. 

The ferocious people to whose incursions Ammianus refers as the cause 
of the Visigothic invasion were the Huns [see p. 42], who had but 
lately made their first appearance in Europe. Already by 376 the Ostro- 
gothic kingdom of Hermaneric, to the north of the Black Sea, had fallen 
before their onslaught, and the wave of conquest was spreading rapidly 
westward toward Dacia and the neighboring lands inhabited by the 
Visigoths. The latter people were even less able to make effectual re- 
sistance than their eastern brethren had been. Part of them had become 
Christians and were recognizing Fridigern as their leader, while the re 

Med. Hist.— 3 



34 THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

maining pagan element acknowledged the sway of Athanaric. On the 
arrival of the Huns, Athanaric led his portion of the people into the 
Carpathian Mountains and began to prepare for resistance, while 
the Christians, led by Fridigern and Alaf (or Alavivus), gathered on 
the Danube and begged permission to take refuge across the river in 
Roman territory. Athanaric and his division of the Visigoths, hav- 
ing become Christians, entered the Empire a few years later and settled 
in Moesia. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, author of the account of the Visigothic in- 
vasion given below, was a native of Antioch, a soldier of Greek ancestry 
and apparently of noble birth, and a rtiember of the Eastern emperor's 
bodyguard. Beyond these facts, gleaned from his Roman History, we 
have almost no knowledge of the man. The date of his birth is unknown, 
likewise that of his death, though from his writings it appears that he 
lived well toward the close of the fourth century. His History began 
with the accession of Nerva, 96 a.d., approximately where the accounts 
by Tacitus and Suetonius end, and continued to the death of his master 
Valens in the battle of Adrianople in 378. It was divided into thirty-one 
books; but of these thirteen have been lost, and some of those which 
survive are imperfect. Although the narrative is broken into rather 
provokingly here and there by digressions on earthquakes and eclipses 
and speculations on such utterly foreign topics as the theory of the de- 
struction of Hons by mosquitoes, it nevertheless constitutes an invalu- 
able source of information on the men and events of the era which it 
covers. Its value is greatest, naturally, on the period of the Visigothic 
invasion, for in dealing with these years the author could describe events 
about which he had direct and. personal knowledge. Ammianus is to be 
thought of as the last of the old Roman school of historians. 



Source — ^Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Lihri qui Supersunt, Bk. 
XXXI., Chaps. 3-4. Translated by Charles D. Yonge under the 
title of Roman History during the Reigns of the Emperors Constan- 
tius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens (London, 1862), 
pp. 584-586. Text in edition of Victor Gardthausen (Leipzig, 
1875), Vol. II., pp. 239-240. 

In the meantime a report spread extensively through the other 
nations of the Goths [i.e., the Visigoths], that a race of men, 
hitherto unknown, had suddenly descended like a whirlwind 



THE CROSSING OF THE DANUBE 35 

from the lofty mountains, as if they had risen from some secret 
recess of the earth, and were ravaging and destroying everything 
that came in their way. Then the greater part of the popula- 
tion (which, because of their lack of necessities, had deserted 
Athanaric), resolved to flee and to seek a home remote from all 
knowledge of the barbarians; and after a long deliberation as to 
where to fix their abdde, they resolved that a retreat into Thrace 
Visigoths ask was the most suitable, for these two reasons: first 
settle^wit^in* °^ ^^^> because it is a district most abundant in 
the Empire grass; and in the second place, because, by the 
great breadth of the Danube, it is wholly separated from the bar- 
barians [i.e, the Goths], who were already exposed to the thunder- 
bolts of foreign warfare. And the whole population of the tribe 
adopted this resolution unanimously. Accordingly, under the 
command of their leader Alavivus, they occupied the banks of 
the Danube; and having sent ambassadors to Valens,^ they hum- 
bly entreated that they might be received by him as his subjects, 
promising to live peaceably and to furnish a body of auxiliary 
troops, if any necessity for such a force should arise. 

While these events were passing in foreign countries, a terrible 
rumor arose that the tribes of the north were planning new and 
Rumors of unprecedented attacks upon us,^ and that over 

ments reach" ^^^^ whole region which extends from the country 
Rome of the Marcomanni and Quadi to Pontus,^ a 

barbarian host composed of various distant nations which had 
suddenly been driven by force from their own country, was now, 
with all their families, wandering about in different directions 
on the banks of the river Danube. 

At first this intelligence was treated lightly by our people, be- 

1 Valens was the Eastern emperor from 364 until his death in the battle 
of Adrianople in 378. His brother Valentinian was emperor in the West 
from 364 to 375. Gratian, son of Valentinian, was the real sovereign in the 
West when the Visigoths crossed the Danube. 

2 That is, upon the writer's people, the Romans. 

3 The Marcomanni and Quadi occupied a broad stretch of territory along 
the upper Danube in what is now the northernmost part of Austria-Hungary. 
Pontus was a province in northern Asia Minor. 



36 THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

cause they were not in the habit of hearing of any wars in those 
remote regions until after they had been terminated either by vic- 
tory or by treaty. But presently the belief in these occurrences 
grew stronger, being confirmed, moreover, by the arrival of 
the foreign ambassadors who, with prayers and earnest en- 
Their coming treaties, begged that the people thus driven from 
a^blessS^ to^^ their homes and now encamped on the other side of 
the Empire the river might be kindly received by us. The affair 
seemed a cause of joy rather than of fear, according to the skilful 
flatterers who were always extolling and exaggerating the good 
fortune of the Emperor; congratulating him that an embassy had 
come from the farthest corners of the earth unexpectedly, offer- 
ing him a large body of recruits, and that, by combining the 
strength of his own nation with these foreign forces, he would 
have an army absolutely invincible; observing farther that, by 
the payment for military reinforcements which came in every 
year from the provinces, a vast treasure of gold might be ac- 
cumulated in his coffers. 

Full of this hope, he sent several officers to bring this ferocious 
people and their wagons into our territory. And such great 
The crossing- of P^^ins were taken to gratify this nation, which was 
the Danube destined to overthrow the empire of Rome, that 
not one was left behind, not even of those who were stricken with 
mortal disease. Moreover, having obtained permission of the 
Emperor to cross the Danube and to cultivate some districts in 
Thrace, they crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing, 
embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made 
of the hollow trunks of trees. In this enterprise, since the Danube 
is the most difficult of all rivers to navigate, and was at that time 
swollen with continual rains, a great many were drowned, who, 
because they were too numerous for the vessels, tried to swim 
across, and in spite of all their exertions were swept away by 
the stream. 

In this way, through the turbulent zeal of violent people, the 



THE BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE 37 

ruin of the Roman Empire was brought on. This, at all events, 
is neither obscure nor uncertain, that the unhappy officers who 
Number of the were intrusted with the charge of conducting 
invaders ^he multitude of the barbarians across the river, 

though they repeatedly endeavored to calculate their numbers, 
at last abandoned the attempt as useless; and the man who 
would wish to ascertain the number might as well attempt to 
count the waves in the African sea, or the grains of sand tossed 
about by the zephyr.^ 

4. The Battle of Adrianople (378) 

Before crossing the Danube the Visigoths had been required by the 
Romans to give up their arms, and also a number of their children to be 
held as hostages. In return it was understood that the Romans would 
equip them afresh with arms sufficient for their defense and with food 
supplies to maintain them until they should become settled in their 
new homes. So far as our information goes, it appears that the Goths 
fulfilled their part of the contract, or at least were willing to do so. But 
the Roman officers in Thrace saw an opportunity to enrich themselves 
by selling food to the famished barbarians at extortionate prices, and a 
few months of such practices sufficed to arouse all the rage and resent- 
ment of which the untamed Teuton was capable. In the summer of 378 
the Goths broke out in open revolt and began to avenge themselves by 
laying waste the Roman lands along the lower Danube frontier. The 
Eastern emperor, Valen.s, hastened to the scene of insurrection, but only 
to lose the great battle of Adrianople, August 9, 378, and to meet his own 
death. "The battle of Adrianople," says Professor Emerton, "was one 

1 Moeller (Histoire du Moyen Age, p. 58), estimates that the Goths who now 
entered Thrace numbered not fewer than 200,000 grown men, accompanied 
by their wives and children. The Italian Villari, in his Barbarian Invasions 
of Italy, Vol. I., p. 49, gives the same estimate. The tendency of contemporary 
chroniclers to exaggerate numbers has misled many older writers. Even 
Moeller's and Villari 's estimate would mean a total of upwards of a million 
people. That there were so many may well be doubted. The Vandals 
played practically as important a part in the history of their times as did the 
Visigoths; yet it is known that when the Vandals passed through Spain, in 
the first half of the fifth century, they numbered not more than 20,000 
fighting men, with their wives and children. 



38 THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

of the decisive battles of the world. It taught the Germans that they 
could beat the legions in open fight and that henceforth it was for them 
to name the price of peace. It broke onde for all the Rhine-Danube 
frontier." Many times thereafter German armies, and whole tribes, 
were to play the role of aUies of Rome; but neither German nor Roman 
could be bUnded to the fact that the decadent empire of the south lay at 
the mercy of the stalwart sons of the northern wilderness. 



Source — Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri qui Supersunt, Bk. 
XXXI., Chaps. 12-14. Translated by Charles D. Yonge [see p. 
34], pp. 608-615 passim. Text in edition of Victor Gardthausen 
(Leipzig, 1875), Vol. II., pp. 261-269. 

He [Valens] was at the head of a numerous force, neither un- 

warlike nor contemptible, and had united with them many 

„, „ ^. veteran bands, amona; whom were several officers 

The Goths ap- ' *= 

proach the Ro- of high rank — especially Trajan, who a little 
man army -^hile before had been commander of the forces. 

And as, by means of spies and observation, it was ascertained that 
the enemy was intending to blockade with strong divisions the 
different roads by which the necessary supplies must come, he 
sent a sufficient force to prevent this, dispatching a body of the 
archers of the infantry and a squadron of cavalry with all speed 
to occupy the narrow passes in the neighborhood. Three days 
afterwards, when the barbarians, who were advancing slowly 
because they feared an attack in the unfavorable ground which 
they were traversing, arrived within fifteen miles from the station 
of Nice ^ (which was the aim of their march) , the Emperor, with 
wanton impetuosity, resolved on attacking them instantly, be- 
cause those who had been sent forward to reconnoitre (what 
led to such a mistake is unknown) affirmed that the entire body 
of the Goths did not exceed ten thousand men. . . .^ 

1 Nice was about thirty miles east of Adrianople. 

2 The Visigoths under Fridigern finally took their position near Adrianople 
and Valens led his army into that vicinity and pitched his camp, fortifying 
it with a rampart of palisades. From the Western emperor, Gratian, a 
messenger came asking that open conflict be piostponed until the army from 



THE BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE 39 

When the day broke which the annals mark as the fifth of the 
Ides of August [Aug. 9] the Roman standards were advanced 
with haste. The baggage had been placed close to the walls of 
Adrianople, under a sufficient guard of soldiers of the legions. 
The treasures and the chief insignia of the Emperor's rank were 
within the walls, with the prefect and the principal members of 
The battle ^^^ council.^ Then, having traversed the broken 

begins ground which divided the two armies, as the 

burning day was progressing towards noon, at last, after marching 
eight miles, our men came in sight of the wagons of the enemy, 
which had been reported by the scouts to be all arranged in a circle. 
According to their custom, the barbarian host raised a fierce and 
hideous yell, while the Roman generals marshalled their line of 
battle. The right wing of the cavalry was placed in front; the 
chief portion of the infantry was kept in reserve. . " . .^ 

And while arms and missiles of all kinds were meeting in 
fierce conflict, and Bellona,^ blowing her mournful trumpet, was 
raging more fiercely than usual,' to inflict disaster on the Romans, 
our men began to retreat; but presently, aroused by the re- 
proaches of their officers, they made a fresh stand, and the battle 
increased like a conflagration, terrifying our soldiers, numbers 
of whom were pierced by strokes of the javelins hurled at them, 
and by arrows. 

Rome could join that from Constantinople. But Valens, easily flattered by 
some of his over-confident generals, foolishly decided to bring on a battle 
at once. Apparently he did not dream that defeat was possible. 

1 After the battle here described, which occurred in the open plain, the 
victorious Goths proceeded to the siege of the city itself, in which, however, 
they were unsuccessful. The taking of fortified towns was an art in which 
the Germans were not skilled. 

2 When both armies were in position Fridigern, "being skilful in divining 
the future," says Ammianus, "and fearing a doubtful struggle," sent a 
herald to Valens with the promise that if the Romans would give hostages 
to the Goths the latter would cease their depredations and even aid the Ro- 
mans in their wars. Richomeres, the Roman cavalry leader, was chosen 
by Valens to serve as a hostage; but as he was proceeding to the Gothic 
camp the soldiers who accompanied him made a rash attack upon a division 
of the enemy and precipitated a battle which soon spread to the whole 
army. 

3 The goddess of war, regarded in Roman mythology as the sister of Mars. 



40 THE VISIGOTHIC INVASION 

Then the two Hnes of battle dashed against each other, hke the 
beaks of ships and, thrusting with all their might, were tossed to 
and fro like the waves of the sea. Our left wing had advanced 
actually up to the wagons, with the intent to push on still farther 
if properly supported; but they were deserted by the rest of 
the cavalry, and so pressed upon by the superior numbers of 
the enemy that they were overwhelmed and beaten down like 
The fury of ^^^ ^^^^ o^ ^ ^^^^ rampart. Presently our in- 
the conflict fantry also was left unsupported, while the vari- 

ous companies became so huddled together that a soldier 
could hardly draw his sword, or withdraw his hand after he had 
once stretched it out. And by this time such clouds of dust arose 
that it was -scarcely possible to see the sky, which resounded 
with horrible cries; and in consequence the darts, which were 
bearing death on every side, reached their mark and fell with 
deadly effect, because no one could see them beforehand so as 
to guard against them. The barbarians, rushing on with their 
enormous host, beat down our horses and men and left no spot 
to which our ranks could fall back to operate. They were so 
closely packed that it was impossible to escape by forcing a way 
through them, and our men at last began to despise death and 
again taking to their swords, slew all they encountered, while 
with mutual blows of battle-axes, helmets and breastplates were 
dashed in pieces. 

Then you might see the barbarian, towering in his fierceness, 
hissing or shouting, fall with his legs pierced through, or his 
right hand cut off, sword and all, or his side transfixed, and 
still, in the last gasp of life, casting around him defiant glances. 
The plain was covered with corpses, showing the mutual ruin of 
the combatants; while the groans of the dying, or of men fearfully 
wounded , were intense and caused much dismay on all sides. Amid 
all this great tumult and confusion our infantry were exhausted 
by toil and danger, until at last they had neither strength left to 
fight nor spirits to plan anything. Their spears were broken by 



THE BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE 41 

the frequent collisions, so that they were forced to content them- 
selves with their drawn swords, which they thrust into the 
The Romans dense battalions of the enemy, disregarding their 
put to flight own safety, and seeing that every possibility 
of escape was cut off from them. . . . The sun, now high 
in the heavens (having traversed the sign of Leo and reached 
the abode of the heavenly Virgo ^) scorched the Romans, who 
were emaciated by hunger, worn out with toil, and scarcely able 
to support even the weight of their armor. At last our columns 
were entirely beaten back by the overpowering weight of the 
barbarians, and so they took to disorderly flight, which is the 
only resource in extremity, each man trying to save himself as 
best he could. . . . 

Scarcely one third of the whole army escaped. Nor, except 
the battle of Cannse, is so destructive a slaughter recorded in our 
annals; 2 though, even in the times of their prosperity, the Ro- 
mans have more than once been called upon to deplore the 
uncertainty of war, and have for a time succumbed to evil 
Fortune. 

1 Signs of the zodiac, sometimes employed by the Romans to give figura- 
tive expression to the time of day. 

2 Tlae number of Romans killed at Cannse (216 B.C.) is variously estimated, 
but it can hardly have been under 50,000. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE HUNS 

5. Descriptions by a Graeco-Roman Poet and a Roman Historian 

The Huns, a people of Turanian stock, were closely related to the an- 
cestors of the Magyars, or the modern Hungarians. Their original 
home was in central Asia, beyond the great wall of China, and they were 
in every sense a people of the plains rather than of the forest or of the 
sea. From the region of modern Siberia they swept westward in suc- 
cessive waves, beginning about the middle of the fourth century, trav- 
ersed the "gateway of the nations" between the Caspian Sea and the 
Ural Moimtains, and fell with fury upon the German tribes (mainly the 
Goths) settled in eastern and southern Europe. The descriptions of 
them given by Claudius Claudianus and Ammianus Marcellinus set 
forth their characteristics as understood by the Romans a half -century 
or more before the invasion of the Empire by Attila. There is no 
reason to suppose that either of these authors had ever seen a Him, or 
had his information at first hand. When both wrote the Hims were yet 
far outside the Empire's bounds. Tales of soldiers and travelers, which 
doubtless grew as they were told, must have supplied both the poet 
and the historian with all that they knew regarding the strange Tura- 
nian invaders. This being the case, we are not to accept all that they 
say as the literal truth. Nevertheless the general impressions which one^ 
gets from their pictures cannot be far wrong. 

Claudius Claudianus, commonly regarded as the last of the Latin 
classic poets, was a native of Alexandria who settled at Rome about 
395. For ten years after that date he occupied a position at the court 
of the Emperor Honorius somewhat akin to that of poet-laureate. 
Much of his writing was of a very poor quality, but his descriptions 
were sometimes striking, as in the stanza given below. On Am- 
mianus Marcellinus see p. 34. 

43 



DESCRIPTION BY A ROMAN HISTORIAN 43 

Sources — (a) Claudius Claudianus, In Rufinum ["Against Rufinus"], Bk. I., 
323-331. Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Auctorcs 
Antiquissimi, Vol. X., pp. 30-31, Translated in Thomas Hodg- 
kin, Italy and Her Invaders (Oxford, 1880), Vol. II., p. 2. 

(b) Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestaruni Libri qui Supersunt, 
Bk. XXXI., Chaps. 2-4 [see p. 34]. Translated in Hodgkin, 
ibid., pp. 34-38. 

(a) 

There is a race on Scythia's ^ verge extreme 
Eastward, beyond the Tanais'^ chilly stream. 
The Northern Bear^ looks on no uglier crew: 
Base is their garb, their bodies foul to view; 
Their souls are ne'er subdued to sturdy toil 
Or Ceres' arts:"* their sustenance is spoil. 
With horrid wounds they gash their brutal brows, 
And o'er their murdered parents bind their vows. 
Not e'en the Centaur-offspring of the Cloud ^ 
Were horsed more firmly than this savage crowd. 
Brisk, lithe, in loose array they first come on, 
Fly, turn, attack the foe who deems them gone. 

(b) 
The nation of the Huns, little known to ancient records, but 
spreading from the marshes of Azof to the Icy Sea,^ surpasses 
all other barbarians in wildness of life. In the first days of in- 
fancy, deep incisions are made in the cheeks of their boys, in order 
that when the time comes for whiskers to grow there, the sprout- 
ing hairs may be kept back by the furrowed scars; and hence 

1 A somewhat indefinite region north and east of the Caspian Sea. 

2 The modern Don, flowing into the Sea of Azof. 

3 One of two constellations in the northern hemisphere, called respectively 
the Great Bear and the Lesser Bear, or Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The 
Great Bear is commonly known as the Dipper. 

4 That is, agriculture. The Huns were even less settled in their mode of 
life than were the early Germans described by Tacitus. 

5 A strange creature of classical mythology, represented as half man and 
half horse. 

6 The White Sea. It is hardly to be believed that the Huns dwelt so far 
north. This was, of course, a matter of sheer speculation with the Romans. 



44 THE HUNS 

they grow to maturity and to old age beardless. They all, 

however, have strong, well-knit limbs and fine necks. Yet they 

_, . , are of portentous ugliness and so crook-backed 

Physical ap- '■ ° 

pearance of the that you would take them for some sort of two- 
footed beasts, or for the roughly-chipped stakes 
which are used for the railings of a bridge. And though they do 
just bear the likeness of men (of a very ugly type), they are so 
little advanced in civilization that they make no use of fire, nor 
of any kind of relish, in the preparation of their food, but feed 
upon the roots which they find in the fields, and the half-raw 
flesh of any sort of animal. I say half-raw, because they give it 
a kind of cooking by placing it between their own thighs and the 
backs of their horses. They never seek the shelter of houses, 
which they look upon as little better than tombs, and will enter 
only upon the direst necessity; nor would one be able to find 
among them even a cottage of wattled rushes; but, wandering at 
large over mountain and through forest, they are trained to en- 
dure from infancy all the extremes of cold, of hunger, and of 
thirst. 

They are clad in linen raiment, or in the skins of field-mice 
sewed together, and the same suit serves them for use in-doors 
Their dress and out. However dingy the color of it may 
become, the tunic which has once been hung around their necks 
is never laid aside nor changed until through long decay the rags 
of it will no longer hold together. Their heads are covered with 
bent caps, their hairy legs with the skins of goats; their shoes, 
never having been fashioned on a last, are so clumsy that they 
cannot walk comfortably. On this account they are not well 
adapted to encounters on foot; but on the other hand they 
are almost welded to their horses, which are hardy, though 
of ugly shape, and on which they sometimes ride woman's 
fashion. On horseback every man of that nation lives night and 
day; on horseback he buys and sells; on horseback he takes his 
meat and drink, and when night comes on he leans forward upon 



DESCKIPTION BY A ROMAN HISTORIAN 45 

the narrow neck of his horse and there falls into a deep sleep, or 
wanders into the varied fantasies of dreams. 

When a discussion arises upon any matter of importance they 
come on horseback to the place of meeting. No kingly sternness 
overawes their deliberations, but being, on the whole, well- 
contented with the disorderly guidance of their chiefs, they do 
not scruple to interrupt the debates with anything that comes 
into their heads. When attacked, they will sometimes engage 
in regular battle. Then, going into the fight in order of columns, 
Their mode they fill the air with varied and discordant cries. 
of fighting More often, however, they fight in no regular 

order of battle, but being extremely swift and sudden in their 
movements, they disperse, and then rapidly come together 
again in loose array, spread havoc over vast plains and, flying 
over the rampart, pillage the camp of their enemy almost be- 
fore he has become aware of their approach. It must be granted 
that they are the nimblest of warriors. The missile weapons 
which they use at a distance are pointed with sharpened bones 
admirably fastened to the shaft. When in close combat they 
fight without regard to their own safety, and while the enemy 
is intent upon parrying the thrusts of their swords they throw a 
net over him and so entangle his limbs that he loses all power of 
walking or riding. 

Not one among them cultivates the ground, or ever touches a 
plow-handle. All wander abroad without fixed abodes, without 
Their nomadic home, or law, or settled customs, like perpetual 
character fugitives, with their wagons for their only habi- 

tations. If you ask them, not one can tell you what is his place 
of origin. They are ruthless truce-breakers, fickle, always ready 
to be swayed by the first breath of a new desire, abandoning 
themselves without restraint to the most ungovernable rage. 

Finally, like animals devoid of reason, they are utterly igno- 
rant of what is proper and what is not. They are tricksters with 
words and full of dark sayings. They are never moved by either 



46 THE HUNS 

religious or superstitious awe. They burn with unquenchable 
thirst for gold, and they are so changeable and so easily moved 
to wrath that many times in the day they will quarrel with their 
comrades on no provocation, and be reconciled, having received 
no satisfaction. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EARLY FRANKS 

|S. The Deeds of Clovis as Related by Gregory of Tours 

The most important historical writer among the early Franks was 
a bishop whose full name was Georgius Florentius Gregorius, but who 
has commonly been known ever since his day as Gregory of Tours. 
The date of his birth is uncertain, but it was probably either 539 or 
540. He was not a Frank, but a man of mixed Roman and Gallic 
descent, his parentage being such as to rank him among the nobility 
of his native district, Auvergne. At the age of thirty-four he was elected 
bishop of Tours, and this important office he held until his death in 
594. During this long period of service he won distinction as an able 
church official, as an alert man of affairs, and as a prolific writer on 
ecclesiastical subjects. Among his writings, some of which have been 
lost, were a book on the Christian martyrs, biographies of several holy 
men of the Church, a commentary on the Psalms, and a treatise on 
the officers of the Church and their duties. 

But by far his largest and most important work was his Ecclesias- 
tical History of the Franks, in ten books, written well toward the end of 
his life. It is indeed to be regarded as one of the most interesting pieces 
of literature produced in any country during the Middle Ages. For 
his starting point Gregory went back to the Garden of Eden, and what 
he gives us in his first book is only an amusing but practically worth- 
less account of the history of the world from Adam to St. Martin of 
Tours, who died probably in 397. In the second book, however, he 
comes more within the range of reasonable tradition, if not of actual 
information, and brings the story down to the death of Clovis in 511. 
In the succeeding eight books he reaches the year 591, though it is 
thought by some that the last four were put together after the author's 
death by some of his associates. However that may be, we may rest 

47 



48 THE EARLY FRANKS 

assured that the history grows in accuracy as it approaches the period 
in which it was written. Naturally it is at its best in the later books, 
where events are described that happened within the writer's life- 
time, and with many of which he had a close connection. Gregory was 
a man of unusual activity and of wide acquaintance among the in- 
fluential people of his day. He served as a counselor of several Prank- 
ish kings and was a prominent figure at their courts. The shrine of 
St. Martin' of Tours^ was visited by pilgrims from all parts of the Chris- 
tian world and by conversation with them Gregory had an excellent 
opportunity to keep informed as to what was going on among the Franks, 
and among more distant peoples as well. He was thus fortunately situ- 
ated for one who proposed to write the history of his times. As a 
bishop of the orthodox Church he had small regard for Arians and other 
heretics, and so was in some ways less broad-minded than we could 
wish ; and of course he shared the superstition and ignorance of his age, 
as will appear in some of the selections below. Still, without his exten- 
sive history we should know far less than we now do concerning the 
Frankish people before the seventh century. He mixes legend with fact 
in a most confusing manner, but with no intention whatever to deceive. 
The men of the earlier Middle Ages knew no other way of writing 
history and their readers were not critical as we are to-day. The 
passages quoted below from Gregory's history give some interesting 
information concerning the Frankish conquerors of Gaul, and at the 
same time show something of the spirit of Gregory himself and of the 
people of his times. 

Particularly interesting is the account of the conversion of Clovis 
and of the Franks to Christianity. When the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, 
Vandals, Lombards, and Burgundians crossed the Roman frontiers 
and settled within the bounds of the old. Empire they were all Chris- 
tians in name, however much their conduct might be at variance with 

1 St. Martin was born in Pannonia somewhat before the middle of the 
fourth century. For a time he followed his father's profession as a soldier in 
the service of the Roman emperor, but later he went to Gaul with the pur- 
pose of aiding in the establishment of the Christian Church in that quarter. 
In 372 he was elected bishop of Tours and shortly afterwards he founded the 
monastery with which his name was destined to be associated throughout 
the Middle Ages. This monastery, which was one of the earUest in western 
Europe, became a very important factor in the prolonged combat with Gallic 
paganism, and subsequently a leading center of ecclesiastical learning. 



THE DEEDS OF CLOVlS AS RELATED BY GREGORY 49 

their profession. The Franks, on the other hand, established them- 
selves in northern Gaul, as did the Saxons in Britain, while they were 
yet pagans, worshipping Woden and Thor and the other strange deities 
of the Germans. It was about the middle of the reign of King Clovis, 
or, more definitely, in the year 496, that the change came. In his 
Ecclesiastical History Gregory tells us how up to this time all the in- 
fluence of the Christian queen, Clotilde, had been exerted in vain to 
bring her husband to the point of renouncing his old gods. In his wars 
and conquests the king had been very successful and apparently he 
was pretty well satisfied with the favors these old gods had showered 
upon him and was unwilling to turn his back upon such generous 
patrons. But there came a time, in 496, in the course of the war with 
the Alemanni, when the tide of fortune seemed to be turning against 
the Frankish king. In the great battle of Strassburg the Franks were 
on the point of being beaten by their foe, and Clovis in desperation 
made a vow, as the story goes, that if Clotilde's God would grant him 
a victory he would immediately become a Christian. Whatever may 
have been the reason, the victory was won and the king, with charac- 
teristic German fidelity to his Avord, proceeded to fulfill his pledge. 
Amid great ceremony he was baptized, and with him three thousand 
of his soldiers the same day. The great majority of Franks lost little 
time in following the royal example. 

Two important facts should be emphasized in connection with this 
famous incident. The first is the peculiar character of the so-called 
"conversion" of Clovis and his Franks. We to-day look upon re- 
ligious conversion as an inner experience of the individual, apt to be 
brought about by personal contact between a Christian and the person 
who is converted. It was in no such sense as this, however, that the 
Franks — or any of the early Germans, for that matter — were made 
Christian. They looked upon Christianity as a mere portion of Roman 
civilization to be adopted or let alone as seemed best; but if it were 
adopted, it must be by the whole tribe or nation, not by individuals 
here and there. In general, the German peoples took up Christianity, 
not because they became convinced that their old religions were false, 
but simply because they were led to believe that the Christian faith 
was in some ways better than their own and so might profitably be 
taken advantage of by them. Clovis beheved he had won the battle 

Med. Hist.— 4 



50 THE EARLY FRANKS 

of Strassburg with the aid of the Christian God when Woden and 
Thor were about to fail him; therefore he reasoned that it would be a 
good thing in the future to make sure that the God of Clotilde should 
always be on his side, and obviously the way to do this was to become 
himself a Christian. He did not wholly abandon the old gods, but 
merely considered that he had found a new one of superior power. 
Hence he enjoined on all his people that they become Christians; and 
for the most part they did so, though of course we are not to suppose 
that there was any very noticeable change in their actual conduct and 
mode of life, at least for several generations. 

The second important point to observe is that, whereas all of the other 
Germanic peoples on the continent had become Christians of the 
Arian type, the Franks accepted Christianity in its orthodox form such 
as was adhered to by the papacy. This was sheer accident. The 
Franks took the orthodox rather than the heretical religion simply 
because it was the kind that was carried to them by the missionaries, 
not at all because they were able, or had the desire, to weigh the two 
creeds and choose the one they liked the better. But though they 
became orthodox Christians by accident, the fact that they became 
such is of the utmost importance in mediaeval history, for by being 
what the papacy regarded as true Christians rather than heretics they 
began from the start to be looked to by the popes for support. Their 
kings in time became the greatest secular champions of papal interests, 
though relations were sometimes far from harmonious. This virtual 
alhance of the popes and the Frankish kings is a subject which will 
repay careful study. 

Source — Gregorius Episcopus Turonensis, Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum 
[Gregory of Tours, "Ecclesiastical History of the Franks"], Bk. II., 
Chaps. 27-43 passim. Text in Monumenta Germanioe Historica, 
Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, Vol. I., Part 1, pp. 88-89, 90- 
95, 98-100, 158-159. 

27. After all these things Childeric ^ died and his son Clovis ruled 
in his stead. In the fifth year of the new reign Syagrius, son of 
JEgidius, was governing as king of the Romans in the town of 

1 Childeric I., son of the more or less mythical Merovius, was king from 457 
to 481. Clovis became ruler of the Salian branch of the Franks in this latter 
year. The tomb of Childeric was discovered at Tournai in 1653. 



THE DEEDS OF CLOVIS AS RELATED BY GREGORY 51 

Soissons, where his father had held sway before him.^ Clovis 
now advanced against' him with his kinsman Ragnachar, who 
also held a kingdom, and gave him an opportunity to select a 
field of battle. Syagrius did not hesitate, for he was not at all 
afraid to risk an encounter. In the conflict which followed, 
however, the Roman soon saw that his army was doomed to 
destruction; so, turning and fleeing from the field, he made all 
The battle of haste to take refuge with King Alaric at Tou- 
Soissons(486) louse.^ Clovis then sent word to Alaric that he 
must hand over the defeated king at once if he did not wish to 
bring on war against himself. Fearing the anger of the Franks, 
therefore, as the Goths continually do, Alaric bound Syagrius 
with chains and delivered him to the messengers of King Clovis. 
As soon as the latter had the prisoner in his possession he put 
him under safe guard and, after seizing his kingdom, had him 
secretly slain.^ 

At this time the army of Clovis plundered many churches, for 
the king was still sunk in the errors of idolatry. Upon one occa- 
sion the soldiers carried away from a church, along with other 
ornaments of" the sacred place, a remarkably large and beautiful 
vase. The bishop of that church sent messengers to the king to 
The storv of ^^^ that, even if none of the other holy vessels 
the broken might be restored, this precious vase at least 

might be sent back. To the messengers Clovis 
could only reply: "Come with us to Soissons, for there all the 
booty is to be divided. If when we cast lots the vase shall fall 
to me, I will return it as the bishop desires. " 

When they had reached Soissons and all the booty had been 

1 ^gidius and his son Syagrius were the last official representatives of the 
Roman imperial power in Gaul; and since the fall of the Empire in the 
West even they had taken the title of "king of the Romans" and had been 
practically independent sovereigns in the territory between the Somme and 
the Loire, with their capital at Soissons, northeast of Paris. 

2 Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, 485-507. 

3 The battle of Soissons in 486, with the defeat and death of Syagrius, 
insured for the Franks undisputed possession southward to the Loire, which 
was the northern frontier of the Visigothic kingdom. 



52 THE EARLY FRANKS 

brought together in the midst of the army the king called atten- 
tion to the vase and said, " I ask you, most valiant warriors, to 
allow me to have the vase in addition to my rightful share." 
Then even those of his men who were most self-willed answered : 
"0 glorious king, all things before us are thine, and we ourselves 
are subject to thy control. Do, therefore, what pleases thee best, 
for no one is able to resist thee." But when they had thus 
spoken, one of the warriors, an impetuous, jealous, and vain man, 
raised his battle-ax aloft and broke the vase in pieces, crying as 
he did so, "Thou shalt receive no part of this booty unless it fall 
to you by a fair lot." And at such a rash act they were all 
astounded. 

The king pretended not to be angry and seemed to take no 
notice of the incident, and when it happened that the broken 
vase fell to him by lot he gave the fragments to the bishop's 
messengers; nevertheless he cherished a secret indignation in 
his heart. A year later he summoned all his soldiers to come 
fully armed to the Campus Martins, so that he might make an 
Olovis's inspection of his troops.^ After he had reviewed 

revenge ^]-^g whole army he finally came across the very 

man who had broken the vase at Soissons. "No one," cried out 
the king to him, "carries his arms so awkwardly as thou; for 
neither thy spear nor thy sword nor thy ax is ready for use," and' 
he struck the ax out of the soldier's hands so that it fell to the 
ground. Then when the man bent forward to pick it up the 
king raised his own ax and struck Kim on the head, saying, 
"Thus thou didst to the vase at Soissons." Having slain him, 
he dismissed the others, filled with great fear.^ . . . 

1 The Campus Martius was the "March-field," i. e., the assembling place 
of the Frankish army. It was not regularly in any one locality but wherever 
the king might call the soldiers together, as he did every spring for purposes 
of review. In the eighth century the month of May was substituted for 
March as the time for the meeting. 

2 In the words of Hodgkin {Charles the Great, p. 12), "the well-known 
story of the vase of Soissons illustrates at once the German memories of 
freedom and the Merovingian mode of establishing a despotism. As a battle 
comrade the Frankish warrior protests against Ciovis receiving an ounce 



THE DEEDS OF CLOVIS AS RELATED BY GREGfORY 53 

30. The queen did not cease urging the king to acknowledge the 
true God and forsake idols, but all her efforts failed until at length 
a war broke out with the Alemanni.^ Then of necessity he was 
compelled to confess what hitherto he had wilfully denied. It 
happened that the two armies were in battle and there was great 
slaughter.^ The army of Clovis seemed about to be cut in pieces. 
Then the king raised his hands fervently toward the heavens 
and, breaking into tears, cried: ''Jesus Christ, who Clotilde de- 
clares to be the son of the living God, who it is said givest help to 
the oppressed and victory to those who put their trust in thee, 
I invoke thy marvellous help. If thou wilt give me victory over 
my enemies and I prove that power which thy followers say they 
have proved concerning thee, I will believe in thee and will be 
baptized in thy name; for I have called upon my own gods and 
it is clear that they have neglected to give me aid. Therefore I 
am convinced that they have no power, for they do not help those 
n ■ fi ■<! ^^° serve them. I now call upon thee, and I 
to become a wish to believe in thee, especially that I may 
escape from my enemies." When he had offered 
this prayer the Alemanni turned their backs and began to flee. 
And when they learned that their king had been slain, they sub- 
mitted at once to Clovis, saying, "Let no more of our people 
■perish, for we now belong to you." When he had stopped the 
battle and praised his soldiers for their good work, Clovis returned 
in peace to his kingdom and told the queen how he had won the 
victory by calling on the name of Christ. These events took 
place in the fifteenth year of his reign. ^ 

beyond his due share of the spoils. As a battle leader Clovis rebukes his 
henchman for the dirtiness of his accoutrements, and cleaves his skull to 
punish him for his independence." 

1 The Alemanni were a German people occupying a vast region about the 
upper waters of the Rhine and Danube. They had been making repeated 
efforts to acquire territory west of the Rhine — an encroachment which 
Clovis resolved not to tolerate. 

2 The battle was fought near Strassburg, in the upper Rhine valley. 

3 The ultimate result of the defeat of the Alemanni was that the Frankish 
kingdom was enlarged by the annexation of the great region known 
in the later Middle Ages as Suabia, comprising modern Alsace, Baden, 



54 THE EARLY FRANKS 

31. Then the queen sent secretly to the blessed Remigius, bishop 
of RheimS; and asked him to bring to the king the gospel of 
salvation. The bishop came to the court where, little by little, 
he led Clovis to believe in the true God, maker of heaven and 
earth, and to forsake the idols which could help neither him nor 
any one else. "Willingly will I hear thee, O holy father," declared 
the king at last, "but the people who are under my authority 
are not ready to give up their gods. I will go and consult them 
about the religion concerning 'which you speak." When he had 
come among them, and before he had spoken a word, all the peo- 
ple, through the influence of the divine power, cried out with 
one voice: "O righteous king, we cast off our mortal gods and 
we are ready to serve the God who Remigius tells us is immortal." 

When this was reported to the bishop he was beside himself 
with joy, and he at once ordered the baptismal font to be pre- 
pared. The streets were shaded with embroidered hangings; 
the churches were adorned with white tapestries, exhaling sweet 
odors; perfumed tapers gleamed; and all the temple of the 
The baDtism baptistry was filled with a heavenly odor, so 
of Clovis and that the people might well have believed that 
God in His graciousness showered upon them the 
perfumes of Paradise. Then Clovis, having confessed that the 
God of the Trinity was all-powerful, was baptized in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and was 
anointed with the holy oil with the sign of the cross. More than 
three thousand of his soldiers were baptized with him. . . . 

35. Now when Alaric, king of the Goths, saw that Clovis was 
conquering many nations, he sent messengers to him, saying, " If 
it please my brother, let us, with the favor of God, enter into an 
alliance." Clovis at once declared his willingness to do as Alaric 

Wiirtemberg, the western part of Bavaria, and the northern part of Switzer- 
land. The Alemanni as a people disappeared speedily from history, being 
absorbed by their more powerful neighbors. Their only monument to-day 
is the name by which the French have always known the people of Germany 
— Allemands. 



THE DEEDS OF CLOVIS AS RELATED BY GREGORY 55 

suggested and the two kings met on an island in the Loire, near 
the town of Amboise in the vicinity of Tours. ^ There they talked, 
ate, and drank together, and after making mutual promises of 
friendship they departed in peace. 

37. But Clovis said to his soldiers: "It is with regret that I see 
the Arian heretics in possession of any part of Gaul. Let us, 
with the help of God, march against them and, after having con- 
quered them, bring their country under our own control." This 
proposal was received with favor by all the warriors and the 
army started on the campaign, going towards Poitiers, where 
Clovis resolves Alaric was then staying. As a portion of the 
Visiffoths'^ troops passed through the territory about Tours, 
lands in Gaul Clovis, out of respect for the holy^ St. Martin, 
forbade his soldiers to take anything from the country except 
grass for the horses. One soldier, having come across some hay 
which belonged to a poor man said, " Has, then, the king given us 
permission to take only grass? well! hay is grass. To take it 
would not be to violate the command." And by force he took 
the hay away from the poor man. When, however, the matter 
was brought to the king's attention he struck the offender with 
his sword and killed him, saying, "How, indeed, may we hope 
for victory if we give offense to St. Martin?" This was enough 
thereafter to prevent the army from plundering in that country. 

When Clovis arrived with his forces at the banks of the Vienne 

he was at a loss to know where to cross, because the heavy rains 

_,. , . had swollen the stream. During the night he 
Miraculous in- ° ° 

cidents of the prayed that the Lord would reveal to him a 

passage. The following morning, under the 

guidance of God, a doe of wondrous size entered the river in 

1 The Loii-e was the boundary between the dominions of the two kings. 
There have been many famous instances in history of two sovereigns coming 
together to confer at some point on tlie common border of the territories 
controlled by them, notably the interview of Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I. 
on the Niemen River in 1807. The Franks and llie Visigoths had been 
enemies ever since by Clovis's defeat of Syagrius their dominions had been 
brought into contact (486), and the present jovial interview of the two kings 
did not long keep them at peace with each other. 



56 . THE EARLY FRANKS 

plain sight of the army and crossed by a ford, thus pointing out 
the way for the soldiers to get over. When they were in the 
neighborhood of Poitiers the king saw at some distance from his 
tent a ball of fire, which proceeded from the steeple of the church 
of St. Hilary^ and seemed to him to advance in his direction, as 
if to show that by the aid of the light of the holy St. Hilary he 
would triumph the more easily over the heretics against whom 
the pious priest had himself often fought for the faith. Clovis 
then forbade his army to molest any one or to pillage any prop- 
erty in that part of the country. 

Clovis at length engaged in battle with Alaric, king of the 
Goths, in the plain of Vouille at the tenth mile-stone from 
Poitiers.^ The Goths fought with javelins, but the Franks 
charged upon them with lances. Then the Goths took to flight, 
as is their custom,^ and the victory, with the aid of God, fell to 
Clovis. He had put the Goths to flight and killed their king, 

mt- TT- • 4.1, Alaric, when all at once two soldiers bore down 
The Visigoths ' 

defeated by upon him and struck him with lances on both 
sides at once; but, owing to the strength of his 
armor and the swiftness of his horse, he escaped death. After 
the battle Amalaric, son of Alaric, took refuge in Spain and ruled 
wisely over the kingdom of his father.^ Alaric had reigned 
twenty-two years. Clovis, after spending the winter at Bor- 
deaux and carrying from Toulouse all the treasure of the king, 
advanced on Angouleme. There the Lord showed him such 
favor that at his very approach the walls of the city fell down of 

1 St. Hilary was bishop of Poitiers in the later fourth century. He was a 
contemporary of St. Martin of Tours and a co-worker with him in the organi- 
zation of Gallic Christianity. 

2 The plain of Vouille was ten miles west of Poitiers. 

3 This amusing comment of Gregory was due largely to his prejudice in 
favor of the Franks and against the heretical Visigoths. 

4 The Visigothic kingdom in Spain, with its capital at Toledo, endured 
until the Saracen conquest of that country in 711 and the years immediately 
following, but it did not give evidence of much strength. It stood so long 
only because the Pyrenees made a natural boundary against the Franks and 
because, after Clovis, for two hundred years the Franks produced no great 
conqueror who cared to crowd the Visigoths into still closer quarters. 



THE DEEDS OF CLOVIS AS BELATED BY GREGORY 57 

their own accord.* , After driving out the Goths he brought the 
place under his own authority. Thus, crowned with victory, 
he returned to Tours and bestowed a great number of presents 
upon the holy church of the blessed Martin.^ 

40. Now while Clovis was living at Paris he sent secretly to the 
son of Sigibert,^ saying: "Behold now your father is old and 
lame. If he should die his kingdom would come to you and my 
friendship with it." So the son of Sigibert, impelled by his 
ambition, planned to slay his father. And when Sigibert set 
out from Cologne and crossed the Rhine to go through the 
Buchonian forest,^ his son had him slain by assassins while he 
was sleeping in his tent, in order that he might gain the kingdom 
for himself. But by the judgment of God he fell into the pit 
which he had digged for his father. He sent messengers to Clovis 
to announce the death of his father and to say: "My father is 
dead and I have his treasures, and likewise the kingdom. Now 
send trusted men to me, that I may give them for you whatever 
you would like out of his treasury." Clovis replied: "I thank 
you for your kindness and will ask you merely to show my 
messengers all your treasures, after which you may keep them 
yourself." And when the messengers of Clovis came, the son of 
Sigibert showed them the treasures which his father had collected. 

1 Clovis, particularly after Iiis conversion to Christianity in 496, was the 
hero of Gregory's history and apparently the enthusiastic old bishop did not 
lose an opportunity to glorify his career. At any rate it would certainly be 
difficult to relate anything more remarkable about him than this legend of 
the walls of Angouleme falling down before him at his mere approach. 

2 This notable campaign had advanced Frankish territory to the Pyrenees, 
except for the strip between these mountains and the Rhone, known as 
Septimania, which the Visigoths were able to retain by the aid of the Ostro- 
goths from Italy. No great number of Franks settled in this broad territory 
south of the Loire, and to this day the inhabitants of south France show a 
much larger measure of Roman descent than do those of the north. It may 
be added that Septimania was conquered by Clo vis's son Childebert in 531, 
and thus the last bit of old Gaul — practically modern France — was brought 
under Frankish control. 

3 This was Cloderic, son of Sigibert the Lame, king of a tribe of Franks 
living along the middle Rhine. Sigibert was one of the numerous indepen- 
dent and rival princes whom Clovis used every expedient to put out of the 
way. 

* Along the Upper Weser, near the monastery of Fulda. 



58 THE EARLY FRANKS 

And while they were looking at various things, he said: "My 
father used to keep his gold coins in this little chest." And 
Other means they said, ''Put your hand down to the bottom, 
v^ extended" ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ show us everything." But when he 
his power stooped to do this, one of the messengers struck 

him on the head with his battle-ax, and thus he met the fate 
which he had visited upon his father. 

Now when Clovis heard that both Sigibert and his son were 
dead, he came to that place and called the people together and 
said to them: ''Hear what has happened. While I was sailing 
on the Scheldt River, Cloderic, son of Sigibert, my relative, 
attacked his father, pretending that I had wished him to slay 
him. And so when his father fled through the Buchonian forest, 
the assassins of Cloderic set upon him and slew him. But while 
Cloderic was opening his father's treasure chest, some man 
unknown to me struck him down. I am in no way guilty of these 
things, for I could not shed the blood of my relatives, which is 
very 'wicked. But since these things have happened, if it seems 
best to you, I advise you to unite with me and come under my 
protection." And those who heard him applauded his speech, 
and, raising him on a shield, acknowledged him as their king. 
Thus Clovis gained the kingdom of Sigibert and his treasures, 
and won over his subjects to his own rule. For God daily con- 
founded his enemies and increased his kingdom, because he 
walked uprightly before Him and did that which was pleasing in 
His sight. 

42. Then Clovis made war on his relative Ragnachar.^ And 

when the latter saw that his army was defeated, he attempted 

to flee; but his own men seized him and his brother Richar and 

brought them bound before Clovis. Then Clovis said: "Why 

The removal have you disgraced our family by allowing your- 

of remainmg , 

rivals self to be taken prisoner? It would have been 

better for you had you been slain." And, raising his battle-ax, 
1 Ragnachar's kingdom was in the region about Cambrai. 



THE LAW OF THE SALIAN FRANKS 59 

he slew him. Then, turning to Richar, he said, "If you had 
aided your brother he would not have been taken;" and he slew 
him with the ax also. Thus by their death Clovis took their 
kingdom and treasures. And many other kings and relatives 
of his, who he feared might take his kingdom from him, were 
slain, and his dominion was extended over all Gaul. 

43. And after these things he died at Paris and was buried in 
the basilica of the holy saints which he and his queen, Clotilde, 
The death had built. He passed away in the fifth year 

of Clovis (511) after the battle of Vouille, and all the days of 
his reign were thirty years. 

7. The Law of the Salian Franks 

When the Visigoths, Lombards, and other Germanic peoples settled 
within the bounds of the Roman Empire they had no such thing as 
written law. They had laws, and a goodly number of them, but these 
laws were handed down from generation to generation orally, having 
never been enacted by a legislative body or decreed by a monarch in 
the way that laws are generally made among the civilized peoples of 
to-day. In other words, early Germanic law consisted simply of an 
accumulation of the immemorial custom of the tribe. When, for 
example, a certain penalty had been paid on several occasions by 
persons who had committed a particular crime, men came naturally 
to regard that penalty as the one regularly to be paid by any one proved 
guilty of the same offense ; so that what was at first only habit gradually 
became hardened into law — unwritten indeed, but none the less bind- 
ing. The law thus made up, moreover, was personal rather than terri- 
torial like that of the Romans and like ours to-day. That is, the same 
laws did not apply to all the people throughout any particular country 
or region. If a man were born a Visigoth he would be subject to Visi- 
gothic law throughout life, no matter where he might go to live. So 
the Burgimdian would always have the right to be judged by Bur- 
gundian law, and the Lombard by the Lombard law. Obviously, in 
regions where several peoples dwelt side by side, as in large portions 
of Gaul, Spain, and northern Italy, there was no small amount of con- 



60 THE EARLY FRANKS 

fusion and the courts had to be conducted in a good many different 
ways. 

After the Germans had been for some time in contact Avitli the Ro- 
mans they began to be considerably influenced by the customs and 
ways of doing things which they found among the more civilized peo- 
ple. They tried to master the Latin language, though, on the whole, 
they succeeded only so well as to create the new "Romance "tongues 
which we know as French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. They 
adopted the Roman religion, i. e., Christianity. And, among the most 
important things of all, they took up the Roman idea of having their 
law written out rather than in the uncertain shape of mere tradition. 
In this work of putting the old customary law in written form the way 
was led by the Salian branch of the Franks. Just when the Salic code 
was drawn up is not known, but the work was certainly done at some 
time during the reign of Clovis, probably about the year 496. The 
portions of this code which are given below will serve to show the 
general character of all the early Germanic systems of law — Visigothic, 
Lombard, Burgundian, and Frisian, as well as Frankish; for among 
them all there was much uniformity in principles, though considerable 
variation in matters of detail. Like the rest, the Salic law was frag- 
mentary. The codes were not intended to embrace the entire law of 
the tribe, but simply to bring together in convenient form those por- 
tions which were most difficult to remember and which were most useful 
for ready reference. In the Salic code, for instance, we find a large 
amount of criminal law and of the law of procedure, but only a few 
touches of the law of property, or indeed of civil law of any sort. There 
is practically nothing in the way of public or administrative law. Many 
things are not mentioned which we should expect to find treated and, 
on the other hand, some things are there which we should not look for 
ordinarily in a code of law. The greater portion is taken up with 
an enumeration of penalties for various crimes and wi'ongf ul acts. 
These are often detailed so minutely as to be rather amusing from our 
modern point of view. Yet every one of the sixty-five chapters of 
the code has its significance and from the whole law can be gleaned 
an immense amount of information concerning the manner of life which 
prevailed in early Frankish Gaul. For the Merovingian period in 
general the Salic law is our most valuable documentary source of 



THE LAW OF THE SALIAN FRANKS 61 

knowledge, just as for the same epoch the Ecclesiastical History of 
Gregory of Tours is our most important narrative source. 



Source— Text in Heinrich Geffcken, Lex Salica ["The SaHc Law"], Leipzig, 
1898; also Heinrich Gottfried Gengler, Germanische Rechtsdenkmdler 
["Monuments of German Law"], Erlangen, 1875, pp. 267-303. 
Adapted from translation in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical 
Documents of the Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 176-189. 



1. If any one be summoned before the maZZws^ by the king's 
law, and do not come, he shall be sentenced to 600 denarii, 
which make 15 solidi.^ 

2. But he who summons another, and does not come him- 
self, if a lawful impediment have not delayed him, shall be 
Summonses to sentenced to 15 solidi, to be paid to him whom 
the meetings . cnmmnnpd 

of the local ^^ summonea. 

courts 3. And he who summons another shall go 

with witnesses to the home of that man, and, if he be not at home, 
shall enjoin the wife, or any one of the family, to make known to 
him that he has been summoned to court. 

4. But if he be occupied in the king's service he cannot sum- 
mon him. 

1 The mallus was the local court held about every six weeks in each com- 
munity or hundred. In early German law the state has small place and the 
principle of self-help by the individual is very prominent. To bring a suit 
one summons his opponent himself and gets him to appear at court if he can. 
Ordinarily the court merely determines the method by which the guilt or 
innocence of the accused may be tested. Execution of the sentence rests 
again with the plaintiff, or with his family or clan group. 

2 "The monetary system of the Salic law was taken from the Romans. 
The basis was the gold solidus of Constantine, y^^ of a pound of gold. The small 
coin was the silver denarius, forty of which made a solidus. This system 
was adopted as a monetary reform by Clovis, and the statement of the sum 
in terms of both coins is probably due to the newness of the system at the time 
of the appearance of the law." — Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book for 
Mediceval History, p. 17. The gold solidus was worth somewhere from two 
and a half to three dollars, but its purchasing power was perhaps equal to 
that of twenty dollars to-day, because gold and silver were then so much 
scarcer and more valuable. Such estimates of purchasing power, however, 
involve so great uncertainty as to be practically worthless. 



62 THE EARLY FRANKS 

5. And if he shall be inside the hundred attending to his own 
affairs, he can summon him in the manner just explained. 

'XI. 

1. If any freeman steal, outside of a house, something worth 
2 denarii, he shall be sentenced to 600 denarii, which make 15 
solidi. 

2. But if he steal, outside of a house, something worth 40 
Theft by denarii, and it be proved on him, he shall be 
a freeman sentenced, besides the amount and the fines for 
delay, to 1,400 denarii, which make 35 solidi. 

3. If a freeman break into a house and steal something worth 
2 denarii, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 15 
solidi. 

4. But if he shall have stolen something worth more than 5 
denarii, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced, be- 
sides the value of the object and the fines for delay, to 1,400 
denarii, which make 35 solidi. 

5. But if he shall have broken, or tampered with, the lock, 
and thus have entered the house and stolen anything from it, 
he shall be sentenced, besides the value of the object and the' 
fines for delay, to 1,800 denarii, which make 45 solidi. 

6. And if he shall have taken nothing, or have escaped by 
flight, he shall, for the housebreaking alone, be sentenced to 
1,200 denarii, which make 30 solidi. 

XII. 

1. If a slave steal, outside of a house, something Worth 2 
Theft by denarii, besides paying the value of the object 
a slave ^j^^ ^j^g g^^^gg Jqj. delay, he shall be stretched out 
and receive 120 blows. 

2. But if he steal something worth 40 denarii, he shall pay 
6 solidi. The lord of the slave who committed the theft shall 
restore to the plaintiff the value of the object and the fines for 
delay. 



THE LAW OF THE SALIAN FRANKS 63 

. XIV. 

1. If any one shall have assaulted and robbed a freeman, and 
it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 2,500 denarii, which 
Robbery with make 63 solidi. 

assault 2. If a Roman shall have robbed a Sahan 

Frank, the above law shall be observed. 

3. But if a Frank shall have robbed a Roman, he shall be 
sentenced to 35 solidi. 

XV. 

1. If any one shall set fire to a house in which people were 
sleeping, as many freemen as were in it can make complaint 
The crime of before the mallus; and if any one shall have been 
incendiarism burned in it, the incendiary shall be sentenced to 
2,500 denarii, which make 63 solidi.^ 

XVII. 

1. If any one shall have sought to kill another person, and 
the blow shall have missed, he on whom it was proved shall be 
sentenced to 2,500 denarii, which make 63 solidi. 

2. If any person shall have sought to shoot another with a 
Various deeds poisoned arrow, and the arrow has glanced aside, 
of violence ^^^^ ^-^ shall be proved on him, he shall be sen- 
tenced to 2,500 denarii, which make 63 solidi. 

5. If any one shall have struck a man so that blood falls to 
the floor, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 600 
denarii, which make 15 solidi. 

6. But if a freeman strike a freeman with his fist so that blood 
does not flow, he shall be sentenced for each blow — up to 3 
blows — to 120 denarii, which make 3 solidi.^ 

1 The Burgundian law (Chap. 41) contained a provision that if a man 
made a fire on his own premises and it spread to fences or crops belonging 
to another person, and did damage, the man who made the fire should recom- 
pense his neighbor for his loss, provided it could be shown that there was no 
wind to drive the fire beyond control. If there was such a wind, no penalty 
was to be exacted. 

2 The law of the Lombards had a more elaborate system of fines for wounds 



64 The early fHanks 

XIX. 

1. If any one shall have given herbs to another, so that he 
die, he shall be sentenced to 200 solidi, or shaH surely be given 
Use of poison over to fire. 

or witchcraft 2. If any person shall have bewitched another, 

and he who was thus treated shall escape, the author of the 
crime, having been proved guilty of it, shall be sentenced to 2,500 
denarii, which make 63 solidi. 

XXX. 

6. If any man shall have brought it up against another that 
Punishment ^® ^^^ thrown away his shield, and shall not have 
for slander been able to prove it, he shall be sentenced to 
120 denarii, which make 3 solidi} 

7. If any man shall have called another "gossip" or "per- 
jurer," and shall not have been able to prove it, he shall be sen- 
tenced to 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi. 

XXXIV. 

1. If any man shall have cut 3 staves by which a fence is 
bound or held together, or shall have stolen or cut the heads of 
3 stakes, he shall be sentenced to 600 denarii, which make 15 
solidi. 

2. If any one shall have drawn a harrow through another's 

than did the Salic code. For example, knocking out a man's front teeth was 
to be paid for at the rate of sixteen solidi per tooth; knocking out back 
teeth at the rate of eight solidi per tooth; fracturing an arm, sixteen solidi; 
cutting off a second finger, seventeen solidi; cutting off a great toe, six solidi; 
cutting off a little toe, two solidi; giving a blow with the fist, three solidi; 
with the palm of the hand, six solidi; and striking a person on the head so as 
to break bones, twelve solidi per bone. In the latter case the broken bones 
were to be counted "on this principle, that one bone shall be found large 
enough to make an audible sound when thrown against a shield at twelve 
feet distance on the road; the said feet to be measured from the foot of a man 
of moderate stature." 

1 The man who had " thrown away his shield " was the coward who had 
fled from the field of battle. How the Germans universally regarded such a. 
person appears in the Germania of Tacitus, Chap. 6 (see p. 25). To impute 
this ignominy to a man was a serious matter. 



THE LAW OF THE SALIAN FRANKS 65 

field of grain after the seed has sprouted, or shall have gone 
The offense through it with a wagon where there was no road, 
of trespass ^le shall be sentenced to 120 denarii, which make 
3 solidi. 

3. If any one shall have gone, where there is no road or path, 
through another's field after the grain has grown tall, he shall 
be sentenced to 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi. 

XLI. 

1. If any one shall have killed a free Frank, or a barbarian 
living under the Salic law, and it shall have been proved on him, 
he shall be sentenced to 8,000 denarii. 

2. But if he shall have thrown him into a well or into the 
Punishments water, or shall have covered him with branches 
for homicide qj. anything else, to conceal him, he shall be 
sentenced to 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi. 

3. If any one shall have slain a man who is in the service of the 
king, he shall be sentenced to 24,000 denarii, which make 600 
solidi.^ 

4. But if he shall have put him in the water, or in a well, and 
covered him with anything to conceal him, he shall be sentenced 
to 72,000 denarii, which make 1,800 solidi. 

5. If any one shall have slain a Roman who eats in the king's 
palace, and it shall have been proved on him, he shall be sen- 
tenced to 12,000 denarii, which make 300 solidi.^ 

6. But if the Roman shall not have been a landed proprietor 
and table companion of the king, he who killed him shall be sen- 
tenced to 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi. 

1 This was the so-called "triple wergeld. " That is, the lives of men in the 
service of the king were rated three times as high as those of ordinary free 
persons. 

2 Here is an illustration of the personal character of Germanic law. There 
is one law for the Frank and another for the Roman, though both peoples 
were now living side by side in Gaul. The price put upon the life of the 
Frankish noble who was in the king's service was 600 solidi (§ 3), but 
that on the life of the Roman noble in the same service was but half that 
amount. The same proportion held for the ordinary freemen, as will be 
seen by comparing § § 1 and 6. 

Med. Hist.— 5 



66 THE EARLY FRANKS 

7. If he shall have killed a Roman who was obliged to 
pay tribute, he shall be sentenced to 63 solidi. 

9. If any one shall have thrown a freeman into a well, and he 
hks escaped alive, he [the criminal] shall be sentenced to 4,000 
denarii, which make 100 solidi. 

XLV. 

1. If any one desires to migrate to another village, and if one 
or more who live in that village do not wish to receive him — 
Right of even if there be only one who objects — he shall 

migration j^q^ have the right to move there. 

3. But if any one shall have moved there, and within 12 
months no one has given him warning, he shall remain as secure 
as the other neighbors. 

L. 

1. If any freeman or leet^ shall have made to another a promise 
to pay, then he to whom the promise was made shall, within 40 
Enforcement days, or within such time as was agreed upon 
of debt when he made the promise, go to the house of 

that man with witnesses, or with appraisers. And if he [the 
debtor] be unwilling to make the promised payment, he shall be 
sentenced to 15 solidi above the debt which he had promised. 

LIX. 

1. If any man die and leave no sons, the father and mother 
shall inherit, if they survive. 

Rights of 2' ^^ ^^^ father and mother do not survive, 

inheritance ^nd he leave brothers or sisters, they shall inherit. 

3. But if there are none, the sisters of the father shall inherit. 

4. But if there are no sisters of the father, the sisters of the 
mother shall claim the inheritance. 

1 A leet was such a person as we in modern times commonly designate as a 
serf — a man only partially free. 



THE LAW OF THE SALIAN FRANKS 67 

5. If there are none of these, the nearest relatives on the 
father's side shall succeed to the inheritance. 

6. Of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall go to a 
woman; but the whole inheritance of the land shall belong to the 
male sex.^ 

LXII. 

1. If any one's father shall have been slain, the sons shall have 
half the compounding money [wergeld]; and the other half, the 
Payment of nearest relatives, as well on the mother's as on 
wergeld the father's side, shall divide among themselves.^ 

2. But if there are no relatives, paternal or maternal, that 
portion shall go to the fisc.^ 

1 This has been alleged to be the basis of the misnamed "Salic Law" 
by virtue of which no woman, in the days of the French monarchy, was 
permitted to inherit the throne. As a matter of fact, however, the exclu- 
sion of women from the French throne was due, not to this or to any other 
early Frankish principle, but to later circumstances which called for stronger 
monarchs in France than women have ordinarily been expected to be. The 
history of the modern "Salic Law" does not go back of the resolution of 
the French nobles in 1317 against the general political expediency of female 
sovereigns [see p. 420]. 

2 The wergeld y/as the value put by the law upon every man's life. Its 
amount varied according to the rank of the person in question. The present 
section specifies how the wergeld paid by a murderer should be divided 
among the relatives of the slain man. 

3 That is, to the king's treasury. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN 

8. The Saxon Invasion (cir. 449) 

The Venerable Bede, the author of the passage given below, was 
born about 673 in Northumberland and spent most of his life in the 
Benedictine abbey of Jarrow on the Tyne, where he died in 735. He 
was a man of broad learning and untiring industry, famous in all parts 
of Christendom by reason of the numerous scholarly books that he 
wrote. The chief of these was his Ecclesiastical History of the English 
People, covering the period from the first invasion of Britain by Csesar 
(B.C. 55) to the year 731. In this work Bede dealt with many mat- 
ters lying properly outside the sphere of church history, so that it 
is exceedingly valuable for the light which it throws on both the mili- 
tary and political affairs of the early Anglo-Saxons in Britain. As an 
historian Bede was fair-minded and as accurate as his means of in- 
formation permitted. 

The Angle and Saxon seafarers from the region we now know as 
Denmark and Hanover had infested the shores of Britain for two cen- 
turies or more before the coming of Hengist and Horsa which Bede 
here describes. The withdrawal of the Roman garrisons about the 
year 410 left the Britons at the mercy of the wilder Picts and Scots of 
the north and west, and as a last resort King Vortigern decided to call 
in the Saxons to aid in his campaign of defense. Such, at least, is the 
story related by Gildas, a Romanized British chronicler who wrote about 
the year 560, and this was the view adopted by Bede. Recent writers, 
as Mr. James H. Ramsay in his Foundations of England, are inclined 
to cast serious doubts upon the story because it seems hardly probable 
that any king would have taken so foolish a step as that attributed 
to Vortigern. ■^ At any rate, whether by invitation or for pure loye 

1 James H. Ramsay, The Foundations of England (London, 1898), I., p. 121. 

68 



THE SAXON INVASION 69 

of seafaring adventure, certain it is that the Saxons and Angles made 
their appearance at tlie little island of Thanet, on the coast of Kent, 
and found the country so much to their liking that they chose to re- 
main rather than return to the over-populated shores of the Baltic. 
There are many reasons for believing that people of Germanic stock 
had been settled more or less permanently in Britain long before the 
traditional invasion of Hengist and Horsa. Yet we are justified in 
thinking of this interesting expedition as, for all practical purposes, the 
beginning of the long and stubborn struggle of Germans to possess the 
fruitful British isle. While Visigoths and Ostrogoths, Vandals and 
Lombards were breaking across the Rhine-Danube frontier and find- 
ing new homes in the territories of the Roman Empire, the Angles, 
Saxons, and Jutes from the farther north were led by their seafaring 
instincts to make their great movement, not by land, but by water, 
and into a country which the Romans had a good while before been 
obliged to abandon. There they were free to develop their own peculiar 
Germanic life and institutions, for the most part without undergoing 
the changes which settlement among the Romans produced in the case 
of the tribes whose migrations were towards the Mediterranean. 



Source — Baeda, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum [Bede, "Ecclesiastical 
History of the English People"], Bk. I., Chaps. 14-15. Translated 
by J. A. Giles (London, 1847), pp. 23-25. 

They consulted what was to be done,^ and where they should 

seek assistance to prevent or repel the cruel and frequent incur- 

„, -, .. sions of the northern nations. And they all 

The Britons -^ 

decide to call agreed with their king, Vortigern, to call over to 
their aid, from the parts beyond the sea, the 
Saxon nation; which, as the outcome still more plainly showed, 
appears to have been done by the inspiration of our Lord Him- 
self, that evil might fall upon them for their wicked deeds. 
In the year of our Lord 449,^ Martian, being made emperor 

1 Bede has just been describing a plague which rendered the Britons at 
this time even more unable than usual to withstand the fierce invaders from 
the north; also lamenting the luxury and crime which a few years of relief 
from war had produced among his people. 

2 This date is evidently incorrect. Martian and Valentinian IIL became 



70 THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN 

with Valentinian, the forty-sixth from Augustus, ruled the 
Empire seven years. Then the nation of the Angles, or Saxons, 
being invited by the a-foresaid king, arrived in Britain with three 
long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in by the same 
king, in the eastern part of the island,^ that they might thus 
appear to be fighting for their country, while their real inten- 
tions were to enslave it. Accordingly they engaged with the 
enemy, who were come from the north to give battle, and ob- 
tained the victory; which, being known at home in their own 
country, as also the fertility of the islands and the cowardice of 
the. Britons, a larger fleet was quickly sent over, bringing a still 
greater number of men, who, being added to the former, made 
_,, g up an invincible army. The newcomers received 

settle in the from the Britons a place to dwell, upon condition 
isldiTid 

that they should wage war against their enemies 

for the peace and security of the country, while the Britons 
agreed to furnish them with pay. 

Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations 
of Germany — Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are 
descended the people of Kent and of the Isle of Wight, and 
those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day 
called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight. From the 
Saxons, that is, the country which is now called Old Saxony, 
came the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and the West Saxons. 
From the Angles, that is, the country which is called Anglia, 
and which is said, from that time, to remain desert to this day, 
between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, are descended^ 
the East Angles, the Midland Angles, Mercians, all the race of 
the Northumbrians, that is, of those nations that dwell on the 

joint rulers of the Empire in 450; hence this is the year that Bede probably 
meant. 

1 That is, Thanet, which practically no longer exists as an island. In 
Bede's day it was separated from the rest of Kent by nearly half a mile of 
water, but since then the coast line has changed so that the land is cut 
through by only a tiny rill. The intervening ground, however, is marshy 
and only partially reclaimed. 



THE SAXON INVASION 71 

north side of the River Humber, and the other nations of the 
Enghsh. 

The first two commanders are said to have been Hengist and 
Horsa. Horsa, being afterwards slain in battle by the Britons/ 
Hengist and was buried in the eastern part of Kent, where a 
Horsa monument bearing his name is still in existence. 

They were the sons of Victgilsus, whose father was Vecta, son 
of Woden; from whose stock the royal races of many provinces 
trace their descent. In a short time swarms of the aforesaid 
nations came over into the island, and they began to increase so 
much that they became a terror to the natives themselves who 
had invited them. Then, having on a ludden entered into a 
league with the Picts, whom they had by this time repelled by 
_,, g the force of their arms, they began to turn their 

turn against weapons against their confederates. At first 
they obliged them to furnish a greater quantity 
of provisions; and, seeking an occasion to quarrel, protested that 
unless more plentiful supplies were brought them they would 
break the confederacy and ravage all the island; nor were they 
backward in putting their threats in execution. 

They plundered all the neighboring cities and country, spread 
the conflagration from the eastern to the western sea with- 
out any opposition, and covered almost every part of the 
island. Public as well as private structures were overturned; 
„, . , the priests were everywhere slain before the altars; 

tation of the the prelates and the people, without any respect 
of persons, were destroyed with fire and sword; 
nor were there any to bury those who had been thus cruelly 
slaughtered. Some of the miserable remainder, being taken in 
the mountains, were butchered in heaps. Others, driven by 
hunger, came forth and submitted themselves to the enemy for 
food, being destined to undergo perpetual servitude, if they 

1 This battle was fought between Hengist and Vortimer, the eldest son 
of Vortigem, at Aylesford, in Kent. 



72 THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN 

were not killed upon the spot. Some, with sorrowful hearts, fled 
beyond the seas. Others, continuing in their own country, led 
a miserable life among the woods, rocks, and mountains, with 
scarcely enough food to support life, and expecting every mo- 
ment to be their last'.^ 

9. The Mission of Augustine (697) 

How or when the Christian religion was first introduced into Britain 
cannot now be ascertained. As early as the beginning of the third 
century the African church father Tertullian referred to the Britons 
as a Christian people, and in 314 the British church was recognized 
by the Council of Aries as an integral part of the church universal. 
Throughout the period of Roman control in the island Christianitj'' 
continued to be the dominant religion. When, however, in the fifth 
century and after, the Saxons and Angles invaded the country and 
the native population was largely killed off or driven westward (though 
not so completely as some books tell us) , Christianity came to be pretty 
much confined to the Celtic peoples of Ireland and Wales. The in- 
vaders were still pagans worshiping the old Teutonic deities Woden, 
Thor, Freya, and the rest, and though an attempt at their conversion 
was made by a succession of Irish monks, their pride as conquerors 
seems to have kept them from being greatly infiuenced. At any rate, 
the conversion of the Angles and Saxons was a task which called for 
a special evangelistic movement from no less a source than the head 
of the Church. This movement was set in operation by Pope Gregory I,. 
(Gregory the Great) near the close of the sixth century. It is reasona • 
ble to suppose that the impulse came originally from Bertha, the 
Frankish queen of King Ethelbert of Kent, who was an ardent Chris- 
tian and very desirous of bringing about the conversion of her adopted 
people. In 596 Augustine (not to be confused with the celebrated 
bishop of Hippo in the fifth century) was sent by Pope Gregory at the 
head of a band of monks to proclaim the religion of the cross to King 

1 It is by no means probable that the invasion of Britain by the Saxons was 
followed by such wholesale extermination of the natives as is here represented, 
though it is certain that everywhere, except in tlie far west (Wales) and 
north (Scotland), the native population was reduced to complete subjection. 



THE MISSION OF AUGUSTINE 73 

Ethelbert, and afterwards to all the Angles and Saxons and Jutes in 
the island. On Whitsunday, June 2, 597, Ethelbert renounced his old 
gods and was baptized into the Christian communion. The majority 
of his people soon followed his example and four years later Augustine 
was appointed "Bishop of the English." After this encouraging be- 
ginning the Christianizing of the East, West, and South Saxons went 
steadily forward. 



Source — Baeda, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Bk. I., Chaps. 23, 
25-26. Adapted from translation by J. A. Giles (London, 1847), 
pp. 34-40 passim. 

In the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth from 
Augustus, ascended the throne,^ and reigned twenty-one years. 
In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man renowned for learn- 
ing and piety, was elected to the apostolical see of Rome, and 
presided over it thirteen years, six months and ten days.^ He, 
Pope Greg- • being moved by divine inspiration, in the four- 
missionaries teenth year of the same emperor, and about the 
to Britain one hundred and fiftieth after the coming of the 

English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine,^ and 
with him several other monks who feared the Lord, to preach 
the word of God to the English nation. They, in obedience to 
the Pope's commands, having undertaken that work, were on 
their journey seized with a sudden fear and began to think of 
returning home, rather than of proceeding to a barbarous, 
fierce, and unbelieving nation, to whose very language they 
_, , were strangers; and this they unanimously 

frightened at agreed was the safest course.'* In short, they 
sent back Augustine, who had been aiDpointed 
to be consecrated bishop in case they were received by the Eng- 

1 That is, the throne of the Eastern Empire at Constantinople. 

2 Gregory was a monk before he was elected pope. He held the papal 
office from 590 to 604 [see p. 90]. 

3 Augustine at the time (596) was prior of :i monastery dedicated to St. 
Andrew in Rome. 

4 The missionaries had apparently gone as far as Aries in southern Pro- 
vence when they reached this decision. 



74 THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN 

lish, that he might, by humble entreaty, obtain consent of the 
holy Gregory, that they should not be compelled to undertake 
so dangerous, toilsome, and uncertain a journey. The Pope, in 
reply, sent them an encouraging letter, persuading them to pro- 
ceed in the work of the divine word, and rely on the assistance of 
the Almighty. The substance of this letter was as follows: 

''Gregory, the servant of the servants of God, to the servants 
of our Lord. Forasmuch as it had been better not to begin a 

„ ,14. good work than to think of abandoning that 

Gregory's let- ° ° 

ter of encour- which has been begun, it behooves you, my 
beloved sons, to fulfill the good work which, by 
the help of our Lord, you have undertaken. Let not, therefore, 
the -toil of the journey nor the tongues of evil-speaking men deter 
you. With all possible earnestness and zeal perform that which, 
by God's direction, you have undertaken; being assured that 
much labor is followed by an eternal reward. When Augustine, 
your chief, returns, whom we also constitute your abbot,^ humbly 
obey him in all things; knowing that whatsoever you shall do by 
his direction will, in all respects, be helpful to your souls. Al- 
mighty God protect you with his grace, and grant that I, in the 
heavenly country, may see the fruits of your labor; inasmuch as, 
though I cannot labor with you, I shall partake in the joy of the 
reward, because I am willing to labor. God keep you in safety, 
my most beloved sons. Dated the 23rd of July, in the fourteenth 
year of the reign of our pious and most august lord; Mauritius 
Tiberius, the thirteenth year after the consulship of our said 
lord." 

Augustine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the 
blessed Father Gregory, returned to the work of the word of 
God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The 
powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent. He had ex- 
tended his dominions as far as the great River Humber, by which 

1 An abbot was the head of a monastery. Should such an establishment 
be set up in Britain, Augustine was to be its presiding officer.' 



THE MISSION OF AlTGUSTINE 75 

the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern,^ On the 
east of Kent is the large isle of Thanet containing according to 
Augustine the English reckoning 600 families, divided from 

panions ^arrive ^^^^ other land by the River Wantsum, which is 
in Kent about three furlongs over and fordable only in 

two places, for both ends of it run into the sea.^ In this island 
landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, 
being, as is reported, nearly forty men. By order of the blessed 
Pope Gregory, they had taken interpreters of the nation of 
the Franks,^ and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were 
come from Rome and brought a joyful message, which most un- 
doubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting 
joys in heaven and a kingdom that would never end, with the 
living and true God. The king, having heard this, ordered that 
they stay in that island where they had landed, and that they 
be furnished with all necessaries, until he should consider what 
to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian re- 
ligion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, 
called Bertha;^ whom he had received from her parents upon 
condition that she should be permitted to practice her religion 
with the Bishop Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve 
her faith.^ 

Some days after, the king came to the island, and sitting in 
the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought 

1 The Germanic peoples north of the Humber were more properly Angles, 
but of course they were in all essential respects like the Saxons. Ethelbert 
was not actually king in that region, but was recognized as " bretwalda, " 
or over-lord, by the other rulers. 

2 For later changes in this part of the coast line, see p. 70, note 1. 

3 This was possible because the Franks and Saxons, being both German, 
as yet spoke languages so much alike that either people could understand 
the other without much difficulty. 

4 Bertha was a daughter of the Prankish king Charibert. The Franks 
had been nominally a Christian people since the conversion of Clovis in 496 
[see p. 53] — just a hundred years before Augustine started on his mission 
to the Angles and Saxons. 

5 Luidhard had been bishop of Senlis, a town not many miles northeast of 
Paris. Probably Augustine and his companions profited not a little by the 
influence which Luidhard had already exerted at the Kentish court. 



76 THE ANGLES AND SAXONS IN BRITAIN 

into his presence. For he had taken precaution that they should 
not come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient super- 
stition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose 
upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came furnished , 
with divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for 
their banner, and the image of our Lord and Savior painted on a 
board; and singing the litany, they offered up their prayers to 
the Lord .for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of 
Augustine those to whom they were come. When Augustine 

Kinff^E^hel^ ^^^ ^^^ down, according to the king's commands, 
bert and preached to him and his attendants there 

present the word of life, the king answered thus: "Your words 
and promises are very fair, but as they are new to us, and of 
uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake 
that which I have so long followed with the whole English nation. 
But because you are come from afar into my kingdom, and, as I 
conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you 
believe to be true and most beneficial, we will not molest you, 
but give you favorable entertainment and take care to sup- 
ply you with necessary sustenance; nor do we forbid you to 
preach and win as many as you can to your religion." Accord- 
ingly he permitted them to reside in the city of Canterbury, 
which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, according to 
his promise, besides allowing them sustenance, did not refuse 
them liberty to preach. It is reported that, as they drew near 
to the city, after their manner, with the holy cross and the image 
of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ, they sang this 
litany together: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, 
that Thy anger and wrath be turned away from this city, and 
from Thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah." 

As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, 
they began to imitate the course of life practised in the primi- 
tive Church; applying themselves to frequent prayer, watch- 
ing, and fasting; preaching the word of life to as many as 



THE MISSION OF AUGUSTINE 77 

they could; despising all worldly things as not belonging to them; 
receiving only their necessary food from those they taught; living 
f th themselves in all respects in conformity with 
missionaries at what they prescribed for others, and being always 
^ disposed to suffer any adversity, and even to die 
for that truth which they preached. In short, several believed 
and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, 
and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine. There was, on the 
east side of the city, a church dedicated to the honor of St. Martin, 
built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the 
queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, used to 
pray.^ In this they first began to meet, to sing, to pray, to say 
mass, to preach, and to baptize, until the king, being converted 
to the faith, allowed them to preach openly, and build or repair 
churches in all places. 

. When he, among the rest, induced by the unspotted life of 
these holy men, and their pleasing promises, which by many 
Ethelbert miracles they proved to be most certain, believed 

converted Q^nd was baptized, greater numbers began daily to 

flock together to hear the word, and forsaking their heathen rites, 
to associate themselves, by believing, to the unity of the church 
of Christ. Their conversion the king encouraged in so far that 
he compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more 
affection to the believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly 
kingdom. For he had learned from his instructors and guides to 
salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not 
by compulsion. Nor was it long before he gave his teachers a set- 
tled residence in his metropolis of Canterbury, with such posses- 
sions of different kinds as were necessary for their subsistence.^ 

1 "The present church of St. Martin near Canterbury is not the old one 
spoken of by Bede, as it is generally thought to be, but is a structure of the 
thirteenth century, though it is probable that the materials of the original 
church were worked up in the masonry in its reconstruction, the walls being 
still composed in part of Roman bricks." — J. A. Giles, Bede's Ecclesiastical 
History, p. 39. 

2 Thus was established the "primacy," or ecclesiastical leadership, of 
Canterbury, which has continued to this day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

10. Pope Leo's Sermon on the Petrine Supremacy 

In tracing the history of the great ecclesiastical institution known 
as the papacy, the first figure that stands out with considerable clear- 
ness is that of Leo I., or Leo the Great, who was elected bishop of Rome 
in the year 440. Leo is perhaps the first man who, all things con- 
sidered, can be called "pope" in the modern sense of the term, although 
certain of his predecessors in the bishop's seat at the imperial capital had 
long claimed and exercised a peculiar measure of authority over their 
fellow bishops throughout the Empire. Almost from the earliest days 
of Christianity the word papa (pope) seems to have been in common 
use as an affectionate mode of addressing any bishop, but after the 
fourth century it came to be applied in a peculiar manner to the bishop 
of Rome, and in time this was the only usage, so far as western Europe 
was concerned, which survived. The causes of the special development 
of the Roman bishopric into the powerful papal office were numerous. 
Rome's importance as a city, and particularly as the political head 
of the Mediterranean world, made it natural that her bishop should 
have something of a special dignity and influence. Throughout western 
Europe the Roman church was regarded as a model and its bishop was 
frequently called upon for counsel and advice. Then, when the seat 
of the imperial government was removed to the East by Constantine, 
the Roman bishop naturally took up much of the leadership in the West 
which had been exercised by the emperor, and this added not a little in 
the way of prestige. On the whole the Roman bishops were moderate, 
liberal, and sensible in their attitude toward church questions, thereby 
commending themselves to the practical peoples of the West in a way 
that other bishops did not always do. The growth of temporal posses- 
sions, especially in the way of land, also made the Roman bishops more 

78 



POPE LEO's SERMON ON THE PETRINE SUPREMACY 79 

independent and able to hold their own. And the activity of such men 
as Leo the Great in warding off the attacks of the German barbarians, 
and in providing popular leadership in the absence of such leader- 
ship on the part of the imperial authorities, was a not unimportant item. 
After all, however, these are matters which have always been re- 
garded by the popes themselves as circumstances of a more or less 
transitory and accidental character. It is not upon any or all of them 
that the papacy from first to last has sought to base its high claims 
to authority. The fundamental explanation, from the papal stand- 
point, for the peculiar development of the papal power in the person 
of the bishops of Rome is contained in the so-called theory of the 
"Petrine Supremacy," which will be found set forth in Pope Leo's 
sermon reproduced in part below. The essential points in this theory 
are: (1) that to the apostle Peter, Christ committed the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven and the supremacy over all other apostles on earth; 
(2) that Peter, in the course of time, became the first bishop of Rome ; 
and (3) that the superior authority given to Peter was transmitted to 
all his successors in the Roman bishopric. It was fundamentally on 
these grounds that the pope, to quote an able Catholic historian, was 
believed to be "the visible representative of ecclesiastical unity, the 
supreme teacher and custodian of the faith, the supreme legislator, the 
guardian and interpreter of the canons, the legitimate superior of all 
bishops, the final judge of councils — an office which he possessed in his 
own right, and which he actually exercised by presiding over all ecu- 
menical synods, through his legates, and by confirming the acts of the 
councils as the Supreme Head of the Universal Catholic Church." ^ 
Modern Protestants discard certain of the tenets which go to make up 
the Petrine theory, but it is essential that the student of history bear 
in mind that the people of the Middle Ages never doubted its com- 
plete and literal authenticity, nor questioned that the authority of the 
papal office rested at bottom upon something far more fundamental than 
a mere fortunate combination of historical circumstances. Whatever 
one's personal opinions on the issues involved, the point to be insisted 
upon is that in studying mediseval church life and organization the uni- 
versal acceptance of these behefs and conclusions be never lost to view. 

1 John Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History (trans, by F. J. Pabisch 
and T. S. Byrne), Cincinnati, 1899, Vol. I., p. 668. 



80 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

Leo was pope from 440 to 461 and it has been well maintained that he 
was the first occupant of the office to comprehend the wide possibilities 
of the papal dignity in the future. In his sermons and letters he vig- 
orously asserted the sovereign authority of his position, and in his in- 
fluence on the events of his time, as for example the Council of Chalce- 
don in 451, he sought with no little success to bring men to a general 
acknowledgment of this authority. 

Source — Text in Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologice. Cursus Completus ["Com- 
plete Collection of Patristic Literature"], First Series, Vol. LIV., 
cols. 144-148. Translated in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 
Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian 
Church (New York, 1895), Second Series, Vol. XII., pp. 117-118. 

Although, therefore, dearly beloved, we be found both weak 
and slothful in fulfilling the duties of our office, because, whatever 
devoted and vigorous action we desire to undertake, we are 
hindered in by the frailty of our nature, yet having the unceasing 
propitiation of the Almighty and perpetual Priest [Christ], who 
being like us and yet equal with the Father, brought down His 
Godhead even to things human, and raised His Manhood even 
to things Divine, we worthily and piously rejoice over His dis- 
pensation, whereby, though He has delegated the care of His 
sheep to many shepherds, yet He has not Himself abandoned 
the guardianship of His beloved flock. And from His overruling 

_, ^, and eternal protection we have received the 

The apostle ^ 

Peter still with support of the Apostle's aid also, which assuredly 
does not cease from its operation; and the strength 
of the foundation, on which the whole superstructure of the 
Church is reared, is not weakened by the weight of the temple 
that rests upon it. For the solidity of that faith which was 
praised. in the chief of the Apostles is perpetual; and as that 
remains which Peter believed in Christ, so that remains which 
Christ instituted in Peter. 

For when, as has been read in the Gospel lesson,^ the Lord 
had asked the disciples whom they believed Him to be amid the 

1 That is, the passage of Scripture read just before the sermon. 



POPE leg's sermon on the petrine supremacy 81 

various opinions that were held, and the blessed Peter had re- 
plied, saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," 

„,,.., the Lord said, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 

Cnrist s com- ' ' 

mission to Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed 

P6ti6r 

it to thee, but My Father, which is in heaven. 

And I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I 

build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against 

it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 

And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in 

heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be 

loosed also in heaven." [Matt. xvi. 16-19.] 

The dispensation of Truth therefore abides, and the blessed 

Peter persevering in the strength of the Rock, which he has 

received, has not abandoned the helm of the Church, which he 

undertook. For he was ordained before the rest in such a way 

that from his being called the Rock, from his being pronounced 

the Foundation, from his being constituted the Doorkeeper of 

the kingdom of heaven, from his being set as the Umpire to bind 

and to loose, whose judgments shall retain their validity in 

Peter croDer- heaven — from all these mystical titles we might 

ly rules the know the nature of his association with Christ. 
Church through . , .„ , , „ „ t m ^^ 

his successors And stili to-day he more lully and enectually 

at Rome performs what is intrusted to him, and carries 

out every part of his duty and charge in Him and with Him, 

through whom he has been glorified. And so if anything is 

rightly done and rightly decreed by us, if anything is won from 

the mercy of God by our daily supplications, it is of his work and 

merits whose power lives and whose authority prevails in his 

see.^ . . . 

And so, dearly beloved, with becoming obedience we celebrate 

to-day's festival ^ by such methods, that in my humble person he 

1 "See" is a term employed to designate a bishop's jurisdiction. Ac- 
cording to common belief Peter had been bishop of Rome; his see was 
therefore that which Leo now held. 

2 The anniversary of Leo's elevation to the papal office. 

Med. Hist.-^6 



82 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

may be recognized and honored, in whom abides the care of all 

the shepherds, together with the charge of the sheep commended 

to him, and whose dignity is not behttled even in so unworthy an 

Leo claims to heir. And hence the presence of my venerable 

be only Peter's brothers and fellow-priests, so much desired and 

representative , , , -n t i i i 

valued by me, will be the more sacred and 

precious, if they will transfer the chief honor of this service in 

which they have deigned to take part to him whom they know 

to be not only the patron of this see, but also the primate of all 

bishops. When therefore we utter our exhortations in your ears, 

holy brethren, believe that he is speaking whose representative 

we are. Because it is his warning that we give, and nothing else 

but his teaching that we preach, beseeching you to ''gird up the 

loins of your mind," and lead a chaste and sober hfe in the fear of 

God, and not to let your mind forget his supremacy and consent 

to the lusts of the flesh. 

Short and fleeting are the joys of this world's pleasures which 

endeavor to turn aside from the path of life those who are called 

to eternity. The faithful and religious spirit, therefore, must 

desire the things which are heavenly and, being eager for the 

1- ^ X- divine promises, lift itself to the love of the in- 
An exhortation f > ^ 

to Christian corruptible Good and the hope of the true Light. 
But be assured, dearly-beloved, that your labor, 
whereby you resist vices and fight against carnal desires, is 
pleasing and precious in God's sight, and in God's mercy will 
profit not only yourselves but me also, because the zealous 
pastor makes his boast of the progress of the Lord's flock. " For 
ye are my crown and joy," as the Apostle says, if your faith, 
which from the beginning of the Gospel has been preached in all 
The pecuUar the world, has continued in love and holiness, 
thj'chfrch^at ^°^ though the whole Church, which is in all 
Rome the world, ought to abound in all virtues, yet you 

especially, above all people, it becomes to excel in deeds of piety, 
because, founded as you are on the very citadel of the Apostolic 



THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 83 

Rock, not only has our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed you in com- 
mon with all men, but the blessed Apostle Peter has instructed 
you far beyond all men. 

11. The Rule of St. Benedict 

A VERY important feature of the church life of the early Middle Ages 
was the tendency of devout men to withdraw from the active affairs 
of the world and give themselves up to careers of self-sacrificing piety. 
Sometimes such men went out to live alone in forests or other obscure 
places and for this reason were called anchorites or hermits; but more 
often they settled in groups and formed what came to be known as 
monasteries. The idea that seclusion is helpful to the religious life was 
not peculiar to Christianity, for from very early times Brahmins and 
Buddhists and other peoples of the Orient had cherished the same 
view; and in many cases they do so still. Monasticism among Christians 
began naturally in the East and at first took the form almost wholly 
of hermitage, just as it had done among the adherents of other Oriental 
religions, though by the fourth century the Christian monks of Syria 
and Egypt and Asia Minor had come in many cases to dwell in estab- 
lished communities. In general the Eastern monks were prone to ex- 
tremes in the way of penance and self-torture which the more practical 
peoples of the West were not greatly disposed to imitate. Monasticism 
spread into the West, but not until comparatively late — ^beginning in 
the second half of the fourth century — and the character which it there 
assumed was quite unlike that prevailing in the East. The Eastern ideal 
was the life of meditation with as little activity as possible, except per- 
haps such as was necessary in order to impose hardships upon one's self. 
The Western ideal, on the other hand, while involving a good deal of 
meditation and prayer, put much emphasis on labor and did not call 
for so complete an abstention of the monk from the pursuits and pleas- 
ures of other men. 

In the later fifth century, and earlier sixth, several monasteries of 
whose history we know little were established in southern Gaul, es- 
pecially in the pleasant valley of the Rhone. Earliest of all, apparently, 
and destined to become the most influential was the abbey of St. Martin 
at Tours, founded soon after St. Martin was made bishop of Tours in 372. 



84 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

But the development of Western monasticism is associated most of all 
with the work of St. Benedict of Nursia, who died in 543. Benedict was 
the founder of several monasteries in the vicinity of Rome, the most im- 
portant being that of Monte Cassino, on the road from Rome to Naples, 
which exists to this day. One should guard, however, against the mis- 
take of looking upon St. Benedict as the introducer of monasticism in the 
West, of even as the founder of a new monastic order in the strict sense of 
the word. The great service which he rendered to European monasticism 
consisted in his working out for his monasteries in Italy an elaborate 
system of government which was found so successful in practice that, 
in the form of the Benedictine Rule (regula), it came to be the constitu- 
tion under which for many centuries practically all the monks of West- 
ern countries lived. That it was so widely adopted was due mainly 
to its definite, practical, common-sense character. Its chief injunctions 
upon the monks were poverty, chastity, obedience, piety, and labor. 
All these were to be attained by methods which, although they may 
seem strange to us to-day, were at least natural and wholesome when 
judged by the ideas and standards prevailing in early mediaeval times. 
Granted the ascetic principle upon which the monastic system rested, 
the Rule of St. Benedict must be regarded as eminently moderate and 
sensible. It sprang from an acute perception of human nature and 
human needs no less than from a lofty ideal of religious perfection. 
The following extracts will serve to show its character. 

Source — ^Text in Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologice Cursus Completus, First 
Series, Vol. LXVI., cols. 245-932 passim. Adapted from transla- 
tion in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the 
Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 274-314. 

Prologue. . . . We are about to found, therefore, a school 
for the Lord's service, in the organization of which we trust that 
we shall ordain nothing severe and nothing burdensome. But 
even if, the demands of justice dictating it, something a trifle 
irksome shall be the result, for the purpose of amending vices or 
preserving charity, thou shalt not therefore, struck by fear, flee 
the way of salvation, which cannot be entered upon except 
through a narrow entrance. 

2. What the abbot should be like. An abbot who is worthy to 



THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 85 

preside over a monastery ought always to remember what he is 

called, and carry out with his deeds the name of a Superior. 

For he is believed to be Christ's representative, since he is called 

by His name, the apostle saying: "Ye have received the spirit of 

adoption of sons, whereby we call Abba, Father " [Romans viii. 

15]. And so the abbot should not (grant that he may not) teach, 

or decree, or order, anything apart from the precept of the Lord ; 

but his order or teaching should be characterized by the marks 

of divine justice in the minds of his disciples. Let the abbot 

Responsibility always be mindful that, at the terrible judgment 

of the abbot Qf God, both things will be weighed in the balance, 
for the char- ° ° 

acter and deeds his teaching and the obedience of his disciples. 
of the monks ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ j^^^^ ^^^^ whatever of useless- 

ness the father of the family finds among the sheep is laid to 
the fault of the shepherd. Only in a case where the whole dili- 
gence of their pastor shall have been bestowed on an unruly and 
disobedient flock, and his whole care given to their wrongful 
actions, shall that pastor, absolved in the judgment of the Lord, 
be free to say to the Lord with the prophet: '' I have not hid Thy 
righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness 
and Thy salvation, but they, despising, have scorned me" [Psalms 
xl. 10]. And then let the punishment for the disobedient 
sheep under his care be that death itself shall prevail against 
He must teach them. Therefore, when any one receives the name 
well as^y pre- ^^ abbot, he ought to rule over his disciples with 
cept a double teaching; that is, let him show forth all 

good and holy things by deeds more than by words. So that to 
ready disciples he may set forth the commands of God in words; 
but to the hard-hearted and the more simple-minded, he may 
show forth the divine precepts by his deeds. 

He shall make no distinction of persons in the monastery. 
One shall not be more cherished than another, unless it be the 
one whom he finds excelling in good works or in obedience^. A 
free-born man shall not be preferred to one coming from servi- 



86 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHtJRCH 

tude, unless there be some other reasonable cause. But if, by 
the demand of justice, it seems good to the abbot, he shall do 
this, no matter what the rank shall be. But otherwise they shall 
keep their own places. For whether we be bond or free, we are all 
His duty to en- one in Christ; and, under one God, we perform an 
monfsh^'and\o ^^[^^1 service of subjection. For God is no re- 
punish specter of persons. Only in this way is a dis- 
tinction made by Him concerning us, if we are found humble 
and surpassing others in good works. Therefore let him [the 
abbot] have equal charity for all. Let the same discipline be 
administered in all cases according to merit. . . . He 
should, that is, rebuke more severely the unruly and the turbu- 
lent. The obedient, moreover, and the gentle and the patient, 
he should exhort, that they may progress to higher things. 
But the negligent and scorners, we warn him to admonish and 
reprove. Nor let him conceal the sins of the erring; but, in order 
that he may prevail, let him pluck them out by the roots as soon 
as they begin to spring up. 

And let him know what a difficult and arduous thing he has 
undertaken — to rule the souls and uplift the morals of many. 
And in one case indeed with blandishments, in another with re- 
bukes, in another with persuasion — according to the quality 
or intelligence of each one — he shall so conform and adapt 
himself to all that not only shall he not allow injury to come to 
the flock committed to him, but he shall rejoice in the increase 
of a good fiock. Above all things, let him not, deceiving himself 
or undervaluing the safety of the souls committed to him, give 
more heed to temporary and earthly and passing things; but let 
him always reflect that he has undertaken to rule souls for which 
he is to render account. 

3. About calling in the brethren to take counsel. Whenever 
anything of importance is to be done in the monastery, the abbot 
shall call together the whole congregation,^ and shall himself 
1 That is, the body of monks residing in the monastery. 



THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 87 

explain the matter in question. And, having heard the advice 

of the brethren, he shall think it over by himself, and shall do 

The monks to what he considers most advantageous. And for 

be consulted this reason, moreover, we have said that all 
by the abbot 

ought to be called to take counsel, because often 

it is to a younger person that God reveals what is best. The 
brethren, moreover, with all subjection of humility, ought so to 
give their advice that they do not presume boldly to defend 
what seems good to them; but it should rather depend on the 
judgment of the abbot, so that, whatever he decides to be best, 
they should all agree to it. But even as it behooves the disci- 
ples to obey the master, so it is fitting that he should arrange 
all matters with care and justice. In all things, indeed, let 
The Rule to be every one follow the Rule as his guide; and let 
ever-7 one as a ^^ ^^® rashly deviate from it. Let no one 
guide in the monastery follow the inclination of his 

own heart. And let no one boldly presume to dispute with 
his abbot, within or without the monastery. But, if he 
should so presume, let him be subject to the discipline of the 
Rule. 

33. Whether the monks should have anything of their own. 
More than anything else is this special vice to be cut off root and 
No property to branch from the monastery, that one should pre- 
the°monks in- sume to give or receive anything without the 
dividiially order of the abbot, or should have anything of 

his own. He should have absolutely not anything, neither a 
book, nor tablets, nor a pen — nothing at all. For indeed it is 
not allowed to the monks to have their own bodies or wills in 
their own power. But all things necessary they must expect 
from the Father of the monastery; nor is it allowable to have 
anything which the abbot has not given or permitted. All 
things shall be held in common; as it is written, "Let not any 
man presume to call anything his own." But if any one shall 
have been discovered delighting in this most evil vice, being 



88 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

warned once and again, if he do not amend, let him be subjected 
to punishment.^ 

48. Concerning the daily manual labor. Idleness is the enemy 
of the soul.^ And therefore, at fixed times, the brothers ought 
to be occupied in manual labor; and again, at fixed times, in 
sacred reading.^ Therefore we believe that both seasons ought 
to be arranged after this manner, — so that, from Easter until the 
Calends of October,^ going out early, from the first until the 
fourth hour they shall do what labor may be necessary. From 
-^ ., h d 1 ^^^ fourth hour until about the sixth, they shall 
for the summer be free for reading. After the meal of the sixth 
hour, rising from the table, they shall rest in their 
beds with all silence; or, perchance, he that wishes to read may 
read to himself in such a way as not to disturb another. And 
the nona [the second meal] shall be gone through with more 
moderately about the middle of the eighth hour; and again they 
shall work at what is to be done until Vespers.^ But, if the emer- 
gency or poverty of the place demands that they be occupied in 
picking fruits, they shall not be grieved; for they are truly monks 
if they live by the labors of their hands, as did also our fathers 
and the apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, how- 
ever, on account of the faint-hearted. 

In days of Lent they shall all receive separate books from the 
library, which they shall read entirely through in order. These 

1 The vow of poverty which must be taken by every Benedictine monk 
meant only that he must not acquire property individually. By gifts of land 
and by their own labor the monks became in many cases immensely rich, 
but their wealth was required to be held in common. No one man could 
rightfully call any part of it his own. 

2 The converse of this principle was often affirmed by Benedictines in the 
saying, "To work is to pray." 

3 The Bible and the writings of such Church fathers as Lactantius, Ter- 
tuUian, Origen, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Eusebius, and St. Jerome. 

* The first day of the month. 

5 Thus the ordinary daily programme during the spring and summer 
months would be: from six o'clock until ten, manual labor; from ten until 
twelve, reading; at twelve, the midday meal; after this meal until the 
second one about half past two, rest and reading; and from the second meal 
until evening, labor. Manual labor was principally agricultural. 



THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 89 

books are to'be given out on the first day of Lent. Above all 
there shall be appointed without fail one or two elders, who shall 
Reading dur- go round the monastery at the hours in which the 
ing Lent brothers are engaged in reading, and see to it that 

no troublesome brother be found who is given to idleness and 
trifling, and is not intent on his reading, being not only of no use 
to himself, but also stirring up others. If such a one (may it not 
happen) be found, he shall be reproved once and a second time. 
If he do not amend, he shall be subject under the Rule to such 
punishment that the others may have fear. Nor shall brother 
join brother at unsuitable hours. Moreover, on Sunday all shall 
engage in reading, excepting those who are assigned to various 
duties. But if any one be so negligent and lazy that he will not 
or can not read, some task shall be imposed upon him which he 
can do, so that he be not idle. On feeble or delicate brothers 
such a task or art is to be imposed, that they shall neither be idle 
nor so oppressed by the violence of labor as to be driven to take 
flight. Their weakness is to be taken into consideration by the 
abbot. 

53. Concerning the reception of guests. All guests who come 
shall be received as though they were Christ. For He Himself 
Hospitality said, " I was a stranger and ye took me in" [Matt. 
enjoined xxv. 35]. And to all fitting honor shall be 
shown; jbut, most of all, to servants of the faith and to pilgrims. 
When, therefore, a guest is announced, the prior or the brothers 
shall run to meet him, with every token of love. And first they 
shall pray together, and thus they shall be joined together in 
peace. 

54. Whether a monk should be allowed to receive letters or any- 
thing. By no means shall it be allowed to a monk — either from 
his relatives, or from any man, or from one of his fellows — to 
receive or to give, without order of the abbot, letters, presents, or 
any gift, however small. But even if, by his relatives, anything 
has been sent to him, he shall not presume to receive it, unless 



90 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

it has first been shown to the abbot. But if the latter order 
it to be received, it shall be in the power of the abbot to give it 
Power of abbot to whomsoever he wishes. And the brother to 
art^fes°sen/ to whom it happened to have been sent shall not 
the monks be displeased ; that an opportunity be not given 

to the devil. Whoever, moreover, presumes to do otherwise 
shall be subject to the discipline of the Rule. 

12. Gregory the Great on the Life of the Pastor 

Gregory the Great, whose papacy extended from 590 to 604, was a 
Roman of noble and wealthy family, and in many ways the ablest man 
who had yet risen to the papal office. The date of his birth is not re- 
corded, but it was probably about 540, some ten years after St. Benedict 
of Nursia had established his monastery at Monte Gassino. He was 
therefore a contemporary of the historian Gregory of Tours [see p. 47]. 
The education which he received was that which was usual with young 
Romans of his rank in life, and it is said that in grammar, rhetoric, logic, 
and law he became well versed, though without any claim to unusual 
scholarship. He entered public life and in 570 was made praetor of the 
city of Rome. All the time, however, he was strugglii^g with the strange 
attractiveness which the life of the monk had for him, and in the end, 
upon the death of his father, he decided to forego the career to which his 
wealth and rank entitled him and to seek the development of his higher 
nature in seclusion. With the money obtained from the sale of his great 
estates he established six monasteries in Sicily and that of St. Andrew 
at Rome. In Gregory's case, however, retirement to monastic life did 
not mean oblivion, for soon he was selected by Pope Pelagius II., as 
resident minister {apocrisiarius) at Constantinople and in this impor- 
tant position he was maintained for five or six years. After returning 
to Rome he became abbot of St. Andrews, and in 590, as the records 
say, he was ' ' demanded " as pope. 

Gregory was a man of very unusual ability and the force of his strong 
personality made his reign one of the great formative epochs in papal 
history. Besides his activity in relation to the affairs of the world in 
general, he has the distinction of being a literary pope. His letters 
and treatises were numerous and possessed a quality of thought and 



GREGORY THE GREAT ON THE LIFE OF THE PASTOR 91 

style which was exceedingly rare in his day. The most famous of his 
writings, and justly so, is the Ldher Regulce Pastor alis, known commonly 
to English readers as the 'j Pastoral Care," or the "Pastoral Rule." 
This book was written soon after its author became pope (590) and was 
addressed to John, bishop of Ravenna, in reply to inquiries received 
from him respecting the duties and obligations of the clergy. Though 
thus put into form for a special purpose, there can be no doubt that 
it was the product of long thought, and in fact in his Magna Moralia, 
or "Commentary on the Book of Job," written during his residence at 
Constantinople, Gregory declared his purpose some day to write just 
such a book. Everywhere throughout Europe the work was received 
with the favor it deserved, and in Spain, Gaul, and Italy its influence 
upon the life and manners of the clergy was beyond estimate. Even 
in Britain, after King Alfred's paraphrase of it in the Saxon tongue 
had been made, three hundred years later [see p. 193], it was a real 
power for good. The permanent value of Gregory's instructions re- 
garding the life of the clergy arose not only from the lofty spirit in 
which they were conceived and the clear-cut manner in which they 
were expressed, but from their breadth and adaptation to all times and 
places. There are few books which the modern pastor can read with 
greater profit. The work is in four parts: (1) on the selection of men 
for the work of the Church; (2) on the sort of life the pastor ought to 
live ; (3) on the best methods of dealing with the various types of people 
which every pastor will be likely to encounter; and (4) on the necessity 
that the pastor guard himself against egotism and personal ambition. 
The passages below are taken from the second and third parts. 

Source — Gregorius Magnus, Liher Regulce Pastoralis [Gregory the Great, 
"The Book of the Pastoral Rule"]. Text in Jacques Paul Migne, 
Patrologice Cursus Completus, First Series, Vol. LXXVIL, cols. 
12-127 passim. Adapted from translation in Philip Schaff and 
Henry Wace, Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of 
the Christian Church (New York, 1895), Second Series, Vol. XII., 
pp. 9-71 passim. 

The conduct of a prelate ^ ought so far to be superior to the 

conduct of the people as the life of a shepherd is accustomed to 

exalt him above the flock. For one whose position is such that 

1 Gregory's remarks and instructions in the Pastoral Rule were intended 
to apply primarily to the local priests — the hmnble pastors of whom we hear 



92 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

the people are called his flock ought anxiously to consider how 
great a necessity is laid upon him to maintain uprightness. It 
The qualities is necessary, then, that^in thought he should be 
be^unite^in ^^ pure, in action firm ; discreet in keeping silence, 
the pastor profitable in speech; a near neighbor to every one 

in sympathy, exalted above all in contemplation; a familiar friend 
of good livers through humility, unbending against the vices of 
evil-doers through zeal for righteousness; not relaxing in his care 
for what is inward by reason of being occupied in outward things, 
nor neglecting to provide for outward things in his anxiety for 
what is inward. 

The ruler should always be pure in thought, inasmuch as no 
impurity ought to pollute him who has undertaken the office 
Purity of heart of wiping away the stains of pollution in the 
essential hearts of others also; for the hand that would 

cleanse from dirt must needs be clean, lest, being itself sordid 
with clinging mire, it soil all the more w^hatever it touches. 

The ruler should always be a leader in action, that by his living 
he may point out the way of life to those who are put under him. 
He must teach and that the flock, which follows the voice and 
by example manners of the shepherd, may learn how to walk 
rather through example than through words. For he who is 
required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest 
things is compelled by the same necessity to do the highest 
things. For that voice more readily penetrates the hearer's 
heart, which the speaker's life commends, since what he com- 
mands by speaking he helps the doing by showing. 

The ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in 
speech; lest he either utter what ought to be suppressed or sup- 
press what he ought to utter. For, as incautious speaking leads 
into error, so indiscreet silence leaves in error those who might 
have been instructed. 

little, but upon whose piety and diligence ultimately depended the whole 
influence of the Church upon the masses of the people. The general princi- 
ples laid down, however, were applicable to all the clergy, of whatever rank. 



GREGORY THE GREAT ON THE LIFE OF THE PASTOR ,93 

The ruler ought also to understand how commonly vices pass 
themselves off as virtues. For often niggardliness excuses itself 
under the name of frugality, and on the other hand extravagance 
conceals itself under the name of liberality. Often inordinate 
carelessness is believed to be loving-kindness, and unbridled 
wrath is accounted the virtue of spiritual zeal. Often hasty 
action is taken for promptness, and tardiness for the deliberation 
He must be of seriousness. Whence it is necessary for the 
ffuish virtues i"uler of souls to distinguish with vigilant care 
and vices between virtues and vices, lest stinginess get 

possession of his heart while he exults in seeming frugality in 
expenditure; or, while anything is recklessly wasted, he glory in 
being, as it were, compassionately liberal; or, in overlooking what 
he ought to have smitten, he draw on those that are under him 
to eternal punishment; or, in mercilessly smiting an offense, he 
himself offend more grievously; or, by rashly anticipating, mar 
what might have been done properly and gravely; or, by putting 
off the merit of a good action, change it to something worse. 

Since, then, we have shown what manner of man the pastor 
ought to be, let us now set forth after what manner he should 
No one kind teach. For, as long before us Gregory Nazi- 
adapted '^tcf anzen,^ of reverend memory, has taught, one and 
all men the same exhortation does not suit all, inasmuch 

as all are not bound together by similarity of character. For 
the things that profit some often hurt others; seeing that also, 
for the most part, herbs which nourish some animals are fatal to 
others; and the gentle hissing that quiets horses incites whelps; 
and the medicine which abates one disease aggravates another; 
and the food which invigorates the life of the strong kills little 
children. Therefore, according to the quality of the hearers 
ought the discourse of teachers to be fashioned, so as to suit all 
and each for their several needs, and yet never deviate from the 

1 Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus (in Cappadocia), was a noted churchman 
of the fourth century. 



94 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHUECH 

art of common edification. For what are the intent minds of 
hearers but, so to speak, a kind of harp, which the skilful player, 
in order to produce a tune possessing harmony, strikes in various 
ways? And for this reason the strings render back a melodious 
sound, because they are struck indeed with one quill, but not 
with one kind of stroke. Whence every teacher also, that he 
may edify all in the one virtue of charity, ought to touch the 
hearts of his hearers out of one doctrine, but not with one and 
the same exhortation. 

Differently to be admonished are these that follow: 

Men and women. 

The poor and the rich. 

The joyful and the sad. 

Prelates and subordinates. 

Servants and masters. 

The wise of this world and the dull. 
Various class- The impudent and the bashful. 
to be distin-^ "^^^ forward and the faint-hearted. 

guished The impatient and the patient. 

The kindly disposed and the envious. 

The simple and the insincere. 

The whole and the sick. 

Those who fear scourges, and therefore live innocently; and 
those who have grown so hard in iniquity as not to be corrected 
even by scourges. 

The too silent, and those who spend time in much speaking. 

The slothful and the hasty. 

The meek and the passionate. 

The humble and the haughty. 

The obstinate and the fickle. 

The gluttonous and the abstinent. 

Those who mercifully give of their own, and those who would 
fain seize what belongs to others. 

Those who neither seize the things of others nor are bountiful 



GREGORY THE GREAT ON THE LIFE OF THE PASTOR 95 

with their own; and those who both give away the things they 
have, and yet cease not to seize the things of others. 

Those who are at variance, and those who are at peace. 

Lovers of strife and peacemakers. 

Those who understand not aright the words of sacred law; 
and those who understand them indeed aright, but speak them 
without humiUty. 

Those who, though able to preach worthily, are afraid through 
excessive humility; and those whom imperfection or age debars 
from preaching, and yet rashness impels to it. 

(Admonition 7).^ Differently to be. admonished are the wise of 
this world and the dull. For the wise are to be admonished that 
they leave off knowing what they know;^ the dull also are to be 
admonished that they seek to know what they know not. In 
the former this thing first, that they think themselves wise, is to 
be overcome; in the latter, whatsoever is already known of 
How the wise heavenly wisdom is to be built up; since, being in 
are to be ad- ^*-* ^^^® proud, they have, as it were, prepared 
monished their hearts for supporting a building. With 

those we should labor that they become more wisely foolish,^ 
leave foolish wisdom, and learn the wise foolishness of God: to 
these we should preach that from what is accounted foolish- 

1 After enumerating quite a number of other contrasted groups in the 
foregoing fashion Gregory proceeds in a series of "admonitions" to take up 
each pair and tell how persons belonging to it should be dealt with by the 
pastor. One of these admonitions is here given as a specimen. 

2 Gregory's attitude toward the "learning of the world," especially the 
classical languages and literatures, was that of the typical Christian ascetic. 
He had no use for it personally and regarded its influence as positively harm- 
ful. It must be said that there was little such learning in his day, for the old 
Latin and Greek culture had now reached a very low stage. Gregory took 
the ground that the churches should have learned bishops, but their learning 
was to consist exclusively in a knowledge of the Scriptures, the writings of 
the Church fathers, and the stories of the martyrs. As a matter of fact not 
only were the people generally quite unable to understand the Latin services 
of the Church, but great numbers of the clergy themselves stumbled blindly 
through the ritual mthout knowing what they were saying; and this con- 
dition of things prevailed for centuries after Gregory's day. [See Charle- 
magne's letter De Litteris Colendis, p. 146.] 

3 That is, more simple and less self-satisfied in their own knowledge. 



96 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

ness they should pass, as from a nearer neighborhood, to true 
wisdom. 

But in the midst of these things we are brought back by the 
earnest desire of charity to what we have already said above; 
that every preacher should give forth a sound more by his deeds 
than by his words, and rather by good living imprint footsteps 
for men to follow than by speaking show them the way to walk 
in. For that cock, too, whom the Lord in his manner of speech 
takes to represent a good preacher, when he is now preparing to 
crow, first shakes his wings, and by smiting himself makes him- 
self more awake; since it is surely necessary that those who give 
utterance to words of holy preaching should first be well awake 
Emphasis on in earnestness of good living, lest they arouse 
of ^ettmff a^^^ others with their voice while themselves torpid 
right example in performance; that they should first shake 
themselves up by lofty deeds, and then make others solicitous 
for good living; that they should first smite themselves with the 
wings of their thoughts; that whatsoever in themselves is un- 
profitably torpid they should discover by anxious investigation, 
and correct by strict self-discipline, and then at length set in 
order the life of others by speaking; that they should take heed 
to punish their own faults by bewailings, and then denounce 
what calls for punishment in others; and that, before they give 
voice to words of exhortation, they should proclaim in their 
deeds all that they are about to speak. 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

13. Selections from the Koran ^ 

The Koran comprises all of the recorded speeches and sayings of 
the prophet Mohammed and it has for nearly fifteen centuries been the 
absolute law and gospel of the Mohammedan religion. The teachings 
and revelations which are contained in it are believed by Mohammedans 
to have proceeded directly from God. They were delivered orally by 
Mohammed from time to time in the presence of his followers and 
until after the prophet's death in 632 no attempt was made to put them 
in organized written form. Many of the disciples, however, remembered 
the words their master had uttered, at least until they could inscribe 
then! on palm leaves, ' bits of wood, bleached bones, or other such 
articles as happened to be at hand. In the reign of Abu-Bekr (632-634), 
Mohammed's successor, it became apparent that unless some measure 
was adopted to bring these scattered sayings together they were in a 
fair way to be lost for all time to come. Hence the caliph intrusted to 
a certain young man by the name of Zaid the task of collecting and 
putting in some sort of system all the teachings that had survived, 
whether in written form or merely in the minds of men. Zaid had 
served Mohammed in a capacity which we should designate perhaps 
as that of secretary, and so should have been well qualified for the 
work. In later years (about 660) the Koran, or "the reading," as the 
collection began to be called, was again thoroughly revised. There- 
after all older copies were destroyed and no farther changes in any 
respect were ever made. 

The Koran is made up of one hundred and fourteen chapters, called 
surahs, arranged loosely in the order of their length, beginning with 
Med. Hist.— 7 97 



98 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

the longest. This arrangement does not correspond either to the dates 
at which the various passages were uttered by the prophet or to any 
sequence of thought and meaning, so that when one takes up the book 
to read it as it is ordinarily printed it seems about as confused as any- 
thing can well be. Scholars, however, have recently discovered the 
chronological order of the various parts and this knowledge has already 
come to be of no little assistance in the work of interpretation. Like 
all sacred books, the Koran abounds in repetitions; yet, taken all in 
all, it contains not more than two-thirds as many verses as the New 
Testament, and, as one writer has rather curiously observed, it is not 
more than one-third as lengthy as the ordinary Sunday edition of the 
New York Herald. The teachings which are most emphasized are (1) 
the' unity and greatness of God, (2) the sin of worshipping idols, (3) 
the certainty of the resurrection of the body and the last judgment, 
(4) the necessity of a belief in the Scriptures as revelations from God 
communicated through angels to the line of prophets, (5) the luxuries 
of heaven and the torments of hell, (6) the doctrine of predestination, 
(7) the authoritativeness of Mohammed's teachings, and (8) the four 
cardinal obligations of worship (including purification and prayer), 
fasting, pilgrimages, and alms-giving. Intermingled with these are 
numerous popular legends and sayings of the Arabs before Mohammed's 
day, stories from the Old and New Testaments derived from Jewish 
and Christian settlers in Arabia, and certain definite and practical 
rules of everyday conduct. The book is not only thus haphazard in 
subject-matter but it is also very irregular in interest and elegance. 
Portions of it abound in splendid imagery and lofty conceptions, and 
represent the literary quality of the Arabian language at its best, though 
of course this quality is very largely lost in translation. The later 
surahs — those which appear first in the printed copy — are largely argu- 
mentative and legislative in character and naturally fall into a more 
prosaic and monotonous strain, j From an almost inexhaustible maze 
of precepts, exhortations, and revelations, the following widely sep- 
arated passages have been selected in the hope that they will serve to 
show something of the character of the Koran itself, as well as the 
nature of some of the more important Mohammedan beliefs and ideals. 
It will be found profitable to make a comparison of Christian beliefs 
on the same points as drawn from the New Testament. 



SELECTIONS PEOM THE KORAN 99 

Source — Text in Edward William Lane, Selections from the Kur-dn, edited by 
Stanley Lane-Poole (London, 1879), ■passim. 

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. 

Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds, 
The opening The Compassionate, the Merciful, 
prayer 1 r^j^g King of the day of judgment. 

Thee do we worship, and of Thee seek we help. 

Guide us in the right way, 
' The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious. 

Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring.^ 

Say, He is God, One [God]; 

God, the Eternal. 

He begetteth not nor is begotten, 

And there is none equal unto Him.^ 

God! There is no God but He, the Ever-LWing, the Ever- 
Subsisting. Slumber seizeth Him not, nor sleep. To Him be- 
The " throne longeth whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatso- 
verse" ever is in the Earth. Who is he that shall intercede 

with Him, unless by His permission? He knoweth what [hath 
been] before them and what [shall be] after them, and they shall 
not compass aught of His knowledge save what He willeth. His 
Throne comprehendeth the Heavens and the Earth, and the care 
of them burdeneth Him not. And He is the High, The Great. ^ 

1 This prayer of the Mohammedans "corresponds in a way to the Lord's 
Prayer of Christian peoples. It is recited several times in each of the five 
daily prayers, and on numerous other occasions. 

2 The petition is for guidance in the "right way" of the Mohammedan, 
marked out in the Koran. By those with whom God is " wroth," and by the 
"erring," is meant primarily the Jews. Mohammed regarded the Jews and 
Ghistians as having corrupted the true religion. 

3 "This chapter is held in particular veneration by the Mohammedans and 
is declared, by a tradition of their prophet, to be equal in value to a third 
part of the whole Koran." — Sale, quoted inJjajne, Selections from the Kur-dn, 
p. 5. 

4 This passage, known as the "throne verse," is regarded by Mohamme- 
dans as one of the most precious in the Koran and is often recited at the end 
of the five daily prayers. It is sometimes engraved on a precious stone or an 
ornament of gold and worn as an amulet. 

LOFC, 



100 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

When the earth is shaken with her shaking, 

And the earth hath cast forth her dead, 

The day of ^^^ ^^^ shall say, ' What aileth her? ' 

resurrection Qn that day shall she tell out her tidings, 

Because thy Lord hath inspired her, 

On that day shall men come one by one to behold their works. 

And whosoever shall have wrought an ant's weight of good shall 

behold it. 
And whosoever shall have wrought an ant's weight of ill shall 

behold it. 

When the heaven shall be cloven asunder, 

And when the stars shall be scattered, 

And when the seas shall be let loose. 

And when the graves shall be turned upside-down,* 

Every soul shall know what it hath done and left undone. 

O man! what hath seduced thee from thy generous Lord, 

Who created thee and fashioned thee and disposed thee 

aright? 
In the form which pleased Him hath He fashioned thee. 
Nay, but ye treat the Judgment as a lie. 
Verily there are watchers over you, 
The coming Worthy recorders, 
judgment Knowing what ye do. 

Verily in delight shall the righteous dwell; 
And verily the wicked in Hell [-Fire]; 
They shall be burnt at it on the day of doom, 
And they shall not be hidden from it. 
And what shall teach thee what the Day of Judgment is? 
Again: What shall teach thee what is the Day of Judgment? 
It is a day when one soul shall be powerless for another soul; and 

all on that day shall be in the hands of God. 

When one blast shall be blown on the trumpet, 

1 These are all to be signs of the day of judgment. 



SELECTIONS FROM THE KORAN 101 

And the earth shall be raised and the mountains, and be broken 

to dust with one breaking, 
On that day the Calamity shall come to pass: 
And the heavens shall cleave asunder, being frail on that day, 
And the angels on the sides thereof; and over them on that day 

eight of the angels shall bear the throne of thy Lord. 
The reward of On that day ye shall be presented for the reckoning; 
the righteous none of your secrets shall be hidden. 

And as to him who shall have his book ^ given to him in his right 

hand, he shall say, 'Take ye, read my book;' 
Verily I was sure I should come to my reckoning. 
And his [shall be] a pleasant life 
In a lofty garden. 

Whose clusters [shall be] near at hand. 
' Eat ye and drink with benefit on account of that which ye paid 

beforehand in the past days.' 

But as to him who shall have his book given to him in his left 
hand, he shall say, 'O would that I had not had my book 
given to me, 

Nor known what [was] my reckoning! 

O would that my death had been the ending of me! 

The fate of My wealth hath not profited me! 

the wicked -^y power is passed from me ! ' 

'Take him and chain him, 

Then cast him into hell to be burnt, 

Then in a chain of seventy cubits bind him: 

For he believed not in God, the Great, 

Nor urged to feed the poor; 

Therefore he shall not have here this day a friend, 

Nor any food save filth 

Which none but the sinners shall eat.' 

1 The record of his deeds during life on earth. 



102 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

When the Calamity shall come to pass 

There shall not be a soul that will deny its happening, 

[It will be] an abaser of some, an exalter of others; 

When the earth shall be shaken with a violent shaking, 

And the mountains shall be crumbled with a violent crumbling, 

And shall become fine dust scattered abroad; 

And ye shall be three classes.^ 

And the people of the right hand, what shall be the people of 

the right hand! 
And the people of the left hand, what' the people of the left 

hand! 
And the Preceders, the Preceders!^ 

" The preced- These [shall be] the brought-nigh [unto God] 
®^^ In the gardens of delight, — 

A crowd of the former generations. 
And a few of the latter generations, 
Upon inwrought couches. 
Reclining thereon, face to face. 
Youths ever-young shall go unto them round about 
With goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine, 
Their [heads] shall ache not with it, neither shall they be drunken; 
And with fruits of the [sorts] which they shall choose, 
And the flesh of birds of the [kinds] which they shall desire. 
And damsels with eyes like pearls laid up 
We will give them as a reward for that which they have done. 
Therein shall they hear no vain discourse nor accusation of sin, 
But [only] the saying, 'Peace! Peace!' 

iThe three classes are: (1) the "preceeders," (2) the people of the right 
hand, i. e., the good, and (3) the people of the left hand, i. e., the evil. The 
future state of each of the three is described in the lines that follow. 

2 "Either the first converts to Mohammedanism, or the prophets, who were 
the respective leaders of their people, or any persons who have been eminent 
examples of piety and virtue, may be here intended. The original words 
literally rendered are, The Leaders, The Leaders: which repetition, as some 
suppose, was designed to express the dignity of these persons and the cer- 
tainty of their future glory and happiness." — Sale, quoted in Wherry, Com- 
prehensive Commentary on the Qur-dn, Vol. IV., pp. 109-110. 



SELECTIONS PROM THE KORAN 103 

And the people of the right hand — what [shall be] the people of 

the right hand! 
[They shall dwell] among lote-trees without thorns 
And bananas loaded with fruit, 
The pleasures And a shade ever-spread, 
of paradise ^^^^ water ei;er-flowing, 

And fruits abundant 

Unstayed and unforbidden,^ 

And couches raised.^ 

Verily we have created them ^ by a [peculiar] creation, 

And have made them virgins, 

Beloved of their husbands, of equal age [with them], 

For the people of the right hand, 

A crowd of the former generations 

And a crowd of the latter generations. 

And the people of the left hand — what [shall be] the people of 

the left hand! 
[They shall dwell] amidst burning wind and scalding water. 
And a shade of blackest smoke. 
Not cool and not grateful. 

For before this they were blest with wordly goods, 
And they persisted in heinous sin. 
And said, ' When we shall have died and become dust and bones, 

shall we indeed be raised to life, 
The torments And our fathers the former generations?' 
of hell ^2ij, verily the former and the latter generations 

Shall be gathered together for the appointed time of a known day. 

iThe luxuries of paradise — the flowing rivers, the fragrant flowers, the 
delicious fruits — are sharply contrasted ■\\ath the conditions of desert life 
most familiar to Mohammed's early converts. Such a description of the 
land of the blessed must have appealed strongly to the imaginative Arabs. 
It should be said that in the modern Mohammedan idea of heaven the 
spiritual element has a rather more prominent place. ^ 

2 Lofty beds. 

3 The "damsels of paradise." 



104 THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

Then ye, O ye erring, belying [people], 

Shall surely eat of the tree of Ez-Zakkoom,^ 

And fill therewith [your] stomachs, 

And drink thereon boiling water. 

And ye -shall drink as thirsty camels drink. — 

This [shall be] their entertainment on the day of retribution. 

1 A scrubby bush bearing fruit like almonds, and extremely bitter. It was 
familiar to Arabs and hence was made to stand as a type of the tree whose 
fruit the wicked must eat in the lower world. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY OF PRANK- 
ISH KINGS 

14. Pepin the Short Takes the Title of King (751) 

During the seventh and eighth centuries the Merovingian line of 
Frankish kings degenerated to a condition of weakness both pitiable 
and ridiculous. As the royal family became less worthy, the powers of 
government gradually slipped from its hands into those of a series of 
ministers commonly known by the title of Mayor of the Palace {Maior 
Domus). The most illustrious of these uncrowned sovereigns was 
Charles Martel, the victor over the Saracens near Poitiers, in whose 
time the Frankish throne for four years had no occupant at all. Martel 
contrived to make his peculiar office hereditary, and at his death in 
741 left it to be filled jointly by his two elder sons, Karlmann and 
Pepin the Short. They decided that it would be to their interest to 
keep up the show of Merovingian royalty a little longer and in 743 
allowed Childeric III. to moimt the throne — a weakling destined to 
be the last of his family to wear the Frankish crown. Four years later 
Karlmann renounced his office and withdrew to the monastery of 
Monte Cassino, southeast of Rome, leaving Pepin sole "mayor" and 
the only real ruler of the Franks. Before many more years had passed, 
the utter uselessness of keeping up a royal line whose members were 
notoriously unfit to govern had impressed itself upon the nation to 
such an extent that when Pepin proceeded to put young Childeric in 
a monastery and take the title of king for himself, nobody offered the 
slightest objection. The sanction of the Pope was obtained for the act 
because Pepin thought that his course would thus be made to appear 
less like an outright usurpation. The Pope's reward came four years 
later when Pepin bestowed upon him the lands in northern and central 
Italy which eventually constituted, in the main, the so-called States of 

105 



106 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CAEOLINGIAN DYNASTY 

the Church. In later times, after the reign of Pepin's famous son 
Charlemagne, the new dynasty established by Pepin's elevation to the 
throne came to be known as the Carolingian (from Karolus, or Charles) . 
The following account of the change from the Merovingian to the 
Carolingian line is taken from the so-called Lesser Annals of Lorsch. 
At the monastery of Lorsch, as at nearly every other such place in the 
Middle Ages, records or "annals" of one sort or another were pretty 
regularly kept. They were often very inaccurate and their writers 
had a curious way of filhng up space with matters of little importance, 
but sometimes, as in the present instance, we can get from them some 
very interesting information. The monastery of Lorsch was about 
twelve miles distant from Heidelberg, in southern Germany. 

Source — Annates Laurissenses Minores ["Ijesser Armals of Lorsch"]. Text 
in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. L, 
p. 116. 

In the year 750 ^ of the Lord's incarnation Pepin sent ambassa- 
dors to Rome to Pope Zacharias,^ to inquire concerning the kings 
of the Franks who, though they were of the royal line and were 
called kings, had no power in the kingdom, except that charters 
and privileges were drawn up in their names. They had abso- 
lutely no kingly authority, but did whatever the Major Domus of 
the Franks desired.^ But on the first day of March in the Campus 

1 The date is almost certainly wrong. Pepin was first acknowledged king 
by the Prankish nobles assembled at Soissons in November, 751, It was 
probably in 751 (possibly 752) that Pope Zacharias was consulted. In 754 
Pepin was crowned king by Pope Stephen III.,successor of Zacharias, who 
journeyed to France especially for the purpose. 

2 Zacharias was pope from 741 to 752. 

3 Einhard, the secretary of Charlemagne [see p. 108], in writing a bi- 
ography of his master, described the condition of Merovingian kingship as 
follows: "All the resources and power of the kingdom had passed into the 
control of the prefects of the palace, who were called the 'mayors of the 
palace,' and who exercised the supreme authority. Nothing was left to 
the king. He had to content himself with his royal title, his flowing locks, 
and long beard. Seated in a chair of state, he was wont to (Ssplay an ap- 
pearance of power by receiving foreign ambassadors on their arrival, and, 
on their departure, giving them, as if on his own authority, those answers 
which he had been taught or commanded to give. Thus, except for his 
empty title, and an uncertain allowance for his sustenance, which the pre- 
fect of the palace used to furnish at his pleasure, there was nothing that the 
king could call his own, unless it were the income from a single farm, and that 
a very small one, where he made his home, and where such servants as were 



PEPIN THE SHORT TAKES THE TITLE OF KING 107 

Martius/ according to ancient custom, gifts were offered to these 
kings by the people, and the king himself sat in the royal seat 
with the army standing round him and the Major Domus in his 
presence, and he commanded on that day whatever was decreed 
by the Franks ; but on all other days thenceforward he remained 
quietly at home. Pope Zacharias, therefore, in the exercise of his 
apostolic authority, replied to their inquiry that it seemed to him 
better and more expedient that the man who held power in the 
kingdom should be called king and be king, rather than he 
who falsely bore that name. Therefore the aforesaid pope com- 
manded the king and people of the Franks that Pepin, who was 
exercising royal power, should be called king, and should be estab- 
lished on the throne. This was therefore done by the anointing 
of the holy archbishop Boniface in the city of Soissons. Pepin 
was proclaimed king, and Childeric, who was falsely called king, 
was shaved and sent into a monastery. 

needful to wait on him constituted his scanty household. When he went 
anywhere he traveled in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, with a rustic 
oxherd for charioteer. In this manner he proceeded to the palace, and to the 
public assemblies of the people held every year for the dispatch of the busi- 
ness of the kingdom, and he returned home again in the same sort of state. 
The administration of the kingdom, and every matter which had to be un- 
dertaken and carried through, both at home and abroad, was managed by 
the mayor of the palace." — Einhard, Vita Caroii Magni, Chap. 1. 
1 See p. 52, note 1. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

15. Charlemagne the Man 

Biographical writings make up a not inconsiderable part of me- 
diaeval literature, but unfortunately the greater portion of them are 
to be trusted in only a limited degree by the student of history. Many 
biographies, especially the lives of the saints and other noted Christian 
leaders, were prepared expressly for the purpose of giving the world 
concrete examples of how men ought to live. Their authors, there- 
fore, were apt to relate only the good deeds of the persons about 
whom they wrote, and these were often much exaggerated for the sake 
of effect. The people of the time generally were superstitious and easily 
appealed to by strange stories and the recital of marvelous events. 
They were not critical, and even such of them as were able to read at 
all could be made to believe almost anything that the writers of books 
cared to say. And since these writers themselves shared in the super- 
stition and credulousness of the age, naturally such biographies as were 
written abounded in tales which anybody to-day would know at a 
glance could not be true. To all this Einhard's Life of Charles the Great 
stands as a notable exception. It has its inaccuracies, but it still 
deserves to be ranked almost in a class of its own as a trustworthy 
biographical contribution to our knowledge of the earlier Middle Ages. 

Einhard (or Eginhard) was a Frank, born about 770 near the Oden- 
wald in Franconia. After being educated at the monastery of Fulda he 
was presented at the Frankish court, some time between 791 and 796, 
where he remained twenty years as secretary and companion of the 
king, and later emperor, Charlemagne. He was made what practically 
corresponds to a modern minister of public works and in that capacity 
Is thought to have supervised the building of the palace and basilica 
of the temple at Aachen, the palace of Ingelheim, the bridge over the 

108 



CHAELEMAGNE THE MAN 109 

Rhine at Mainz, and many other notable constructions of the king, 
though regarding the precise work of this sort which he did there is a 
general lack of definite proof. Despite the fact that he was a layman, 
he was given charge of a number of abbeys. His last years were spent 
at the Benedictine monaster}- of Seligenstadt, where he died about 840. 
There is a legend that Einhard's wife, Emma, was a daughter of Charle- 
magne, but this is to be regarded as merely a twelfth-century invention. 
The Vita Caroli Magni was written as an expression of the author's 
gratitude to his royal friend and patron, though it did not appear 
until shortly after the latter's death in 814. " It contains the history 
of a very great and distinguished man/' says Einhard in his preface, 
"but there is nothing in it to wonder at, besides his deeds, except the 
fact that I, who am a barbarian, and very little versed in the Roman 
language, seem to suppose myself capable of writing gracefully and 
respectably in Latin." It is considered ordinarily that Einhard en- 
deavored to imitate the style of the Roman Suetonius, the biographer 
of the first twelve Caesars, though in reality his writing is perhaps 
superior to that of Suetonius and there are scholars who hold that 
if he really followed a classical model at aU that model was Julius 
Caesar, Aside from the matter of literary style, there can be no reasona- 
ble doubt that the idea of writing a biography of his master was sug- 
gested to Einhard by the biographies of Suetonius, particularly that 
of the Emperor Augustus. Despite his limitations, says Mr, Hodgkin, 
the fact remains that "almost all our real, vivifying knowledge of 
Charles the Great is derived from Einhard, and that the Vita Caroli 
is one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages." ^ 
Certainly few mediaeval writers had so good an opportunity as did 
Einhard to know the truth about the persons and events they under- 
took to describe. 

Source — ^Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni [" Life of Charles the Great "], Chaps, 
22-27. Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz 
ed.), Vol. II., pp. 455-457. Adapted from translation by Samuel 
Epes Turner in " Harper's School Classics" (New York, 1880), 
pp. 56-65. 

22. Charles was large and strong, and of lofty stature, though 
not excessively tall. The upper part of his head was round, his 
1 Thomas Hodgkin, Charles the Great (London, 1903), p. 222. 



110 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

eyes very large and animated, nose a little long, hair auburn, and 
face laughing and merry. His appearance was always stately 
and dignified, whether he was standing or sitting, although his 
neck was thick and somewhat short and his abdomen rather 
prominent. The symmetry of the rest of his body concealed 
these defects. His gait was firm, his whole carriage manly, and 
Personal ^^^ voice clear, but not so strong as his size led 

appearance one to expect. His health was excellent, except 
during the four years preceding his death, when he was subject 
to frequent fevers; toward the end of his life he limped a little 
with one foot. Even in his later years he lived rather according 
to his own inclinations than the advice of physicians; the latter 
indeed he very much disliked, because they wanted him to give 
up roasts, to which he was accustomed, and to eat boiled meat 
instead. In accordance with the national custom, he took fre- 
quent exercise on horseback and in the chase, in which sports 
scarcely any people in the world can equal the Franks. He en- 
joyed the vapors from natural warm springs, and often indulged 
in swimming, in which he was so skilful that none could surpass 
him; and hence it was that he built his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
and lived there constantly during his later years. ^ . . . 

23. His custom was to wear the national, that is to say, the 
Frankish, dress — next his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, 
and above these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by 

1 The German name for Aix-la-Chapelle was Aachen. From Roman times 
the place was noted throughout Europe for its warm sulphur springs and 
for centuries before Charlemagne's day it had been a favorite resort for 
health-seekers. It was about the middle of his reign that Charlemagne de- 
termined to have the small palace already existing rebuilt, togetner with its 
accompanying chapel. Marbles and mosaics were obtained at Rome and 
Ravenna, and architects and artisans were brought together for the work 
from all Christendom. The chapel was completed in 805 and was dedicated 
by Pope Leo III. Both palace and chapel were destroyed a short time 
before the Emperor's death, probably as the result of an earthquake. The 
present town-house of Aix-la-Chapelle has been constructed on the ruins 
of this palace. The chapel, rebuilt on the ancient octagonal plan in 983, 
contains the tomb of Charlemagne, marked by a stone bearing the inscription 
"Carolo Magno." Besides Aachen, Charlemagne had many other residences, 
as Compiegne, Worms, Attigny, Mainz, Paderborn, Ratisbon, Heristal, and 
Thionville. 



CHARLEMAGNE THE MAN 111 

bands covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet. In winter he 
protected his shoulders and chest by a close-fitting coat of otter 
or marten skins. Over all he flung a blue cloak, and he always 
had a sword girt about him, usually one with a gold or silver hilt 
and belt. He sometimes carried a jeweled sword, but only on 
Manner great feast-days or at the reception of ambassa- 

of dress ^qj.q froni foreign nations. He despised foreign 

costumes, however handsome, and never allowed himself to be 
robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman 
tunic, chlamys,^ and shoes; the first time at the request of Pope 
Hadrian,^ the second to gratify Leo, Hadrian's successor.^ On 
great feast-days he made use of embroidered clothes, and shoes 
adorned with precious stones; his cloak was fastened with a 
golden buckle, and he appeared crowned with a diadem of gold 
and gems; but on other days his dress differed little from that of 
ordinary people. 

24. Charles was temperate in eating, and especially so in 
drinking, for he abhorred drunkenness in anybody, much more 
in himself and those of his household; but he could not easily 
abstain from food, and often complained that fasts injured his 
health. He gave entertainments but rarely, only on great feast- 
days, and then to large numbers of people. His meals consisted 
ordinarily of four courses, not counting the roast, which his hunts- 
men were accustomed to bring in on the spit; he was more fond 
of this than of any other dish. While at table, he listened to 
reading or music. The subjects of the readings were the stories 
and deeds of olden time. He was fond, too, of St. Augustine's 
books, and especially of the one entitled The City of God.'^ 

1 A loose, flowing outer garment, or cloak. It was a feature of ancient 
Greek dress. 

2 Hadrian I., 772-775. Charlemagne's first visit to Rome was in 774. 

3 Leo III., 795-816. The Roman dress was donned by Charlemagne 
during his visit in 800 [see p. 130]. 

4 St. Augustine, the greatest of the Church fathers, was born in Nuraidia 
in 354. He spent a considerable part of his early life studying in Rome 
and other Italian cities. The De Civitate Dei ("City of God"), generally re- 
garded as his most important work, was completed in 426, its purpose being 



112 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

He was so moderate in the use of wine and all sorts of drink that 
he rarely allowed himself more than three cups in the course of a 
Every-day meal. In summer, after the midday meal, he 

^*® would eat some fruit, drain a single cup, put off 

his clothes and shoes, just as he did for the night, and rest for two 
or three hours. While he was dressing and putting on his shoes, 
he not only gave audience to his friends, but if the Count of the 
Palace ^ told him of any suit in which his judgment was neces- 
sary, he had the parties brought before him forthwith, heard the 
case, and gave his decision, just as if he were sitting in the judg- 
ment-seat. This was not the only business that he transacted at 
this time, but he performed any duty of the day whatever, 
whether he had to attend to the matter himself, or to give 
commands concerning it to his officers. 

25. Charles had the gift of ready and fluent speech, and could 
express whatever he had to say with the utmost clearness. He 
was not satisfied with ability to use his native language merely, 
but gave attention to the study of foreign ones, and in particular 
was such a master of Latin that he could speak it as well as his 
native tongue; but he could understand Greek better than he 
could speak it. He was so eloquent, indeed, that he might have 
been taken for a teacher of oratory. He most zealously cherished 
the liberal arts, held those who taught them in great esteem, and 
conferred great honors upon them. He took lessons in grammar 
of the deacon Peter of Pisa, at that time an aged man.^ Another 

to convince the Romans that even though the supposedly eternal city of 
Rome had recently been sacked by the barbarian Visigoths, the true "city 
of God" was in the hearts of men beyond the reach of desecrating invaders. 
When he wrote the book Augustine was bishop of Hippo, an important city 
of northern Africa. His death occurred in 430, during the siege of Hippo by 
Gaiseric and his horde of Vandals. 

1 The Count of the Palace was one of the coterie of officials by whose aid 
Charlemagne managed the affairs of the state. He was primarily an officer 
of justice, corresponding in a way to the old Mayor of the Palace, but with 
very much less power. 

2 When Charlemagne captured Pavia, the Lombard capital, in 774, he 
found Peter the Pisan teaching in that city. With characteristic zeal for 
the advancement of education among his own people he proceeded to trans- 
fer the learned deacon to the Prankish Palace School [see p. 144]. 



CHARLEMAGNE THE MAN 113 

deacon, Albin of Britain, surnamed Alcuin, a man of Saxon birth, 
who was the greatest scholar of the day, was his teacher in other 
-J, .. branches of learning.^ The king spent much 

and accom- time and labor with him studying rhetoric, dia- 
lectic, and especially astronomy. He learned to 
make calculations, and used to investigate with much curiosity 
and intelligence the motions of the heavenly bodies. He also 
tried to write, and used to keep tablets and blanks in bed under 
his pillow, that at leisure hours he might accustom his hand to 
form the letters; however, as he began his efforts late in life, and 
not at the proper time, they met with little success. 

26. He cherished with the greatest fervor and devotion the 
principles of the Christian religion, which had been instilled into 
him from infancy. Hence it was that he built the beautiful 
basilica at Aix-la-Chapelle, which he adorned with gold and silver 
and lamps, and with rails and doors of solid brass. He had the 
columns and marbles for this structure brought from Rome and 
Ravenna, for he could not find such as were suitable elsewhere.^ 
He was a constant worshipper at this church as long as his health 
permitted, going morning and evening, even after nightfall, 

_ . . . besides attending mass. He took care that all 

Interest in re- ° 

ligion and the the services there conducted should be held in 
the best possible manner, very often warning 
the sextons not to let any improper or unclean thing be brought 
into the building, or remain in it. He provided it with a number 
of sacred vessels of gold and silver, and with such a quantity 
of clerical robes that not even the door-keepers, who filled the 
humblest office in the church, were obliged to wear their every- 
day clothes when in the performance of their duties. He took 

1 Alcuin was born at York in 735. He took up his residence at Charle- 
magne's court about 782, and died in the office of abbot of St. Martin of Tours 
in 804. 

2 During the Napoleonic period many of these columns were taken pos- 
session of by the French and transported to Paris. Only recently have they 
been replaced in the Aix-la-Chapelle cathedral. Most of them came originally 
from the palace of the Exarch of Ravenna. 

Med. Hi,.t.— 8 



114 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

great pains to improve the church reading and singing, for he 
was well skilled in both, although he neither read in public nor 
sang, except in a low tone and with others. 

27. He was very active in aiding the poor, and in that open 
generosity which the Greeks call alms; so much so, indeed, that 
he not only made a point of giving in his own country and his 
own kingdom, but when he discovered that there were Christians 
living in poverty in Syria, Egypt, and Africa, at Jerusalem, 
Alexandria, and Carthage, he had compassion on their wants, 
and used to send money over the seas to them. The reason that 
he earnestly strove to make friends with the kings beyond seas 
was that he might get help and relief to the Christians living 
Generosity under their rule. He cared for the Church of St. 

and charities Peter the Apostle at Rome above all other holy 
and sacred places, and heaped high its treasury with a vast wealth 
of gold, silver, and precious stones. He sent great and countless 
gifts to the popes; ^ and throughout his whole reign the wish that 
he had nearest his heart was to re-establish the ancient authority 
of the city of Rome under his care and by his influence, and to 
defend and protect the Church of St. Peter, and to beautify and 
enrich it out of his own store above all other ehurches. Never- 
theless, although he held it in such veneration, only four times ^ did 
he repair to Rome to pay his vows and make his supplications 
during the whole forty-seven years that he reigned.^ 

16. The War with the Saxons (772-803) 

When Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Franks, in 771, he 
found his kingdom pretty well hemmed in by a belt of kindred, 

1 These statements of Einhard respecting the lavishness of Charlemagne's 
gifts must be taken with some allowance. They were doubtless considerable 
for the day, but Charlemagne's revenues were not such as to enable him to 
display wealth which in modern times would be regarded as befitting a mon- 
arch of so exalted rank. 

2 In 774, 781, 787, and 800. 

3 Charlemagne became joint ruler of the Franks with his brother Karl- 
mann in 768; hence when he died, in 814, he had reigned only forty-six years 
instead of forty-seven. 



THE WAR WITH THE SAXONS 115 

though more or less hostile, Germanic peoples. The most important 
of these were the Visigoths in northern Spain, the Lombards in the 
Po Valley, the Bavarians in the region of the upper Danube, and the 
Saxons between the Rhine and the Elbe. The policy 5f the new king, 
perhaps only dimly outlined at the beginning of the reign but growing 
ever more definite as time went on, was to bring all of these neigh- 
boring peoples under the Frankish dominion, and so to build up a great 
state which should include the whole Germanic race of western and 
northern continental Europe. Most of the king's time during the first 
thirty years, or two-thirds, of the reign was devoted to this stupendous 
task. The first great step was taken in the conquest of the Lombards in 
774, after which Charlemagne assumed the title of King of the Lom- 
bards. In 787 Bavaria was annexed to the Frankish kingdom, the 
settlement in this case being in the nature of a complete absorption 
rather than a mere personal union such as followed the Lombard con- 
quest. The next year an expedition across the Pyrenees resulted in the 
annexation of the Spanish March — a region in which the Visigoths had 
managed to maintain some degree of independence against the Sara- 
cens. In all these directions little fighting was necessary and for one 
reason or another the sovereignty of the Frankish king was recog- 
nized without much delay or resistance. 

The problem of reducing the Saxons was, however, a very different 
one. The Saxons of Charlemagne's day were a people of purest Ger- 
manic stock dwelling in the land along the Rhine, Ems, Weser, and 
Elbe, and inland as far as the low mountains of Hesse and Thuringia — 
the regions which now bear the names of Hanover, Brunswick, Olden- 
burg, and Westphalia. The Saxons, influenced as yet scarcely at all 
by contact with the Romans, retained substantially the manner of 
life described seven centuries earlier by Tacitus in the Germania. They 
liv£d in small villages, had only the loosest sort of government, and 
clung tenaciously to the warlike mythology of their ancestors. Before 
Charlemagne's time they had engaged in frequent border wars with 
the Franks and had shoAvn capacity for making very obstinate resistance. 
And when Charlemagne himself undertook to subdue them he entered 
upon a task which kept him busy much of the time for over thirty years, 
that is, from 772 to 803. In all not fewer than eighteen distinct cam- 
paigns were made into the enemy's territory.. The ordinary course 



116 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

of events was that Charlemagne would lead his army across the Rhine 
in the spring, the Saxons would make some little resistance and then 
disperse or withdraw toward the Baltic, and the Franks would leave 
a garrison and return home for the winter. As soon as the enemy's 
back was turned the Saxons would rally, expel or massacre the garrison, 
and assert their complete independence of Frankish authority. The 
next year the whole thing would have to be done over again. There 
were not more than two great battles in the entire contest; the war 
consisted rather of a monotonous series of "military parades," apparent 
submissions, revolts, and re-submissions. As Professor Emerton puts 
it, "From the year 772 to 803, a period of over thirty years, this war 
was always on the programme of the Frankish policy, now resting for 
a few years, and now breaking out with increased fury, until finally 
the Saxon people, worn out with the long struggle against a superior 
foe, gave it up and became a part of the Frankish Empire." ^ 

It is to be regretted that we have no Saxon account of the great 
contest except the well-meant, but very inadequate, history by Widu- 
kind, a monk of Corbie, written about the middle of the tenth century. 
However, the following passage from Einhard, the secretary and 
biographer of Charlemagne, doubtless describes with fair accuracy the 
conditions and character of the struggle. A few of the writer's strongest 
statements regarding Saxon perfidy should be accepted only with some 
allowance for Frankish prejudice. 



Source — Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, Chap. 7. Text in Monumenta Ger- 
manice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 446-447. 
Adapted from translation by Samuel Epes Turner in " Harper's 
School Classics " (New York, 1880), pp. 26-28. 

No war ever undertaken by the Frankish nation was carried 
on with such persistence and bitterness,, or cost so much labor, 
because the Saxons, like almost all the tribes of Germany, were 
a fierce people, given to the worship of devils and hostile to our 
religion, and did not consider it dishonorable to transgress and 
violate all law, human and divine. Then there were peculiar 

1 Ephraim Emerton, Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (Boston, 
1903), p. 189. 



THE WAR WITH THE SAXONS 117 

circumstances that tended to cause a breach of peace every day. 
Except in a few places, where large forests or mountain-ridges 
Lack of a nat- i^itervened and made the boundaries certain, the 
ural frontier line between ourselves and the Saxons passed 
almost in its whole extent through an open country, so that 
there was no end to the murders, thefts, and arsons on both sides. 
In this way the Franks became so embittered that they at last 
resolved to make reprisals no longer, but to come to open war 
with the Saxons. 

Accordingly, war was begun against them, and was waged for 
thirty-three successive years ^ with great fury; more, however, 
to the disadvantage of the Saxons than of the Franks. It could 
doubtless have been brought to an end sooner, had it not been 
for the faithlessness of the Saxons. It is hard to say how often 
they were conquered, and, humbly submitting to the king. 
Faithlessness promised to do what was enjoined upon them, 
of the Saxons gave without hesitation the required hostages, 
and received the officers sent them from the king. They were 
sometimes so much weakened and reduced that they promised 
to renounce the worship of devils and to adopt Christianity; but 
they were no less ready to violate these terms than prompt to 
accept them, so that it is impossible to tell which came easier to 
them to do; scarcely a year passed from the beginning of the war 
without such changes on their part. But the king did not suffer 
his high purpose and steadfastness — firm alike in good and evil 
fortune — to be wearied by any fickleness on their part, or to be 
turned from the task that he had undertaken; on the contrary, 
Charlemagne's he never allowed their faithless behavior to go un- 
llxSi? Gaul punished, but either took the field against them 
and Germany in person, or sent his counts with an army to wreak 
vengeance and exact righteous satisfaction.^ At last, after con- 

1 The war really lasted only thirty, or at the most thirty-one, years. 

2 The only notable act of vengeance during the war was the beheading 
of 4,500 Saxons in a single day at Verden, on the Weser. It was occasioned 
by a great Saxon revolt in 782, led by the chieftain Widukind. 



118 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

quering and subduing all who had offered resistance, he took 
ten thousand of those who lived on the banks of the Elbe, and 
settled them, with their wives and children, in many different 
bodies here and there in Gaul and Germany. The war that had 
lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to 
The terms of the terms offered by the king; which were re- 
peace nunciation of their national religious customs and 
the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian 
religion,^ and union with the Franks to form one people. 

17. The Capitulary Concerning the Saxon Territory (cir. 780) 

Just as the Saxons were the most formidable of Charlemagne's 
foes to meet and defeat in open battle, so were they the most difficult 
to maintain in anything like orderly allegiance after they had been 
tentatively conquered. This was true in part because of their un- 
tamed, freedom-loving character, but also in no small measure because 
of the thoroughgoing revolution which the Frankish king sought to 
work in their conditions of life, and especially in their religion. Before 
the Saxon war was far advanced it had very clearly assumed the char- 
acter of a crusade of the Christian Franks against the "pagans of the 

1 The formula of renunciation and confession generally employed in the 
Christianizing of the Germans, and therefore in all probability in the con- 
version of the Saxons, was as follows: 

Question. Forsakest thou the devil? 

Answer. I forsake the devil. 

Ques. And all the devil's service? 

Ans. And I forsake all the devil's service. 

Ques. And all the devil's works? 

Ans. And I forsake all the devil's works and words. Thor and Woden and 
Saxnot and all the evil spirits that are their companions. 

Ques. Belie vest thou in God the Almighty Father? 

Ans. I believe in God the Almighty Father. 

Ques. Believest thou in Christ the Son of God? 

Ans. I beheve in Christ the Son of God. 

Ques. Believest thou in the Holy Ghost? 

Ans. I believe in the Holy Ghost. 

"Accepting Christianity was to the German very much like changing of 
allegiance from one political sovereign to another. He gave up Thor and 
Woden (Odin) and Saxnot, and in their place took the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost." — Emerton, Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages, 
pp._ 155-156. Text of these " Interrogationes et Responsiones Baptismales" 
is in the Monumenta Germanioe Historica, Leqes (Boretius ed.). Vol. II., 
No. 107. 



CAPITULARY CONCERNING THE SAXON TERRITORY 119 

north." And when the Saxon had been brought to give sullen promise 
of submission, it was his dearest possession — his fierce, heroic mythology 
— that was first to be swept away. By the stern decree of the conqueror 
Woden and Thor and Freya must go. In their stead was to be set up 
the Christian religion with its churches, its priests, its fastings, its cere- 
monial observances. Death was to be the penalty for eating meat during 
Lent, if done "out of contempt for Christianity," and death also for 
"causing the body of a dead man to be burned in accordance with 
pagan rites." Even for merely scorning "to come to baptism," or 
"wishing to remain a pagan," a man was to forfeit his life. The se- 
lections which follow are taken from the capitulary De Partibus Saxonioe, 
which was issued by Charlemagne probably at the Frankish assembly 
held at Paderborn in 780. If this date is correct (and it cannot be far 
wrong) the regulations embodied in the capitulary were established 
for the Saxon territories when there perhaps seemed to be a good 
prospect of peace but when, as later events showed, there yet remained 
twenty-three years of war before the final subjugation. From the 
beginning of the struggle the Church had been busy setting up new 
centers of influence — some abbeys and especially the great bishoprics 
of Bremen, Minden, Paderborn, Verden, Osnabriick, and Halberstadt — ■ 
among the Saxon pagans, and the primary object of Charlemagne in 
this capitulary was to give to these ecclesiastical foundations the 
task of civilizing the country and to protect them, together with his 
counts or governing agents, while they should be engaged in this work. 
The severity of the Saxon war was responsible for the unusually 
stringent character of this body of regulations. In 797, at a great 
assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle, another capitulary for the Saxons was 
issued, known as t.hp Ca'pitmhir^. .Sf|77nT?fr"^ and in this the harsh 
features of the earlier capitulary were considerably relaxed. By 797 
the resistance of the Saxons was pretty well broken, and it had become 
Charlemagne's policy to give hfs conquered subjects a government 
as nearly as possible like that the Franks themselves enjoyed. The 
chief importance of Charlemagne's conquests toward the east lies in 
the fact that by them broad stretches of German territory were brought 
for the first time within the pale of civilization. 

These capitularies, like the hundreds of others that were issued by the 
various kings of the Franks, were edicts or decrees drawn up rmder the 



120 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

king's direction, discussed and adopted in the assembly of the people, 
and published in the local districts of the kingdom by the counts 
and bishops. They were of a less permanent and fixed character 
than the so-called "leges," or laws estabUshed by long usage and 
custom. 



Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I. , 
No. 26, pp. 68-70. Translated by Dana C. Munro in University 
of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 
2-5. 

First, concerning the greater chapters it has been en- 
acted:^ 

It is pleasing to all that the churches of Christ, which are now 
being built in Saxony and consecrated to God, should not have 
less, but greater and more illustrious honor than the shrines of 
the idols have had. 

2. If any one shall have fled to a church for refuge, let no one 
presume to expel him from the church by violence, but he shall 

, , be left in peace until he shall be brought to the 

as places of judicial assemblage; and on account of the honor 
re uge ^^^ ^^ q^^ ^^^ ^^^ saints, and the reverence due 

to the church itself, let his life and all his members be granted to 
him. Moreover, let him plead his cause as best he can and he 
shall be judged; and so let him be led to the presence of the lord 
king, and the latter shall send him where it shall seem fitting 
to his clemency. 

3. If any one shall have entered a church by violence and 
shall have carried off anything in it by force or theft, or 
shall have burned the church itself, let him be punished by 
death.2 

1 That is, the more important offenses, involving capital punishment, 
as contrasted with the later "lesser chapters" dealing with minor mis- 
demeanors. 

2 The Saxons were to be won to the Church through the protection it af- 
forded, but they were likewise to be made to stand in awe of the sanctity of 
its property. 



CAPITULARY CONCERNING THE SAXON TERRITORY 121 

4. If any one, out of contempt for Christianity, shall have 
- „ despised the holy Lenten feast and shall have eaten 
against the flesh, let him be punished by death. But, neverthe- 
less, let it be taken into consideration by^ priest, 

lest perchance any one from necessity has been led to eat flesh. ^ 

5. If any one shall have killed a bishop or priest or deacon 
let him likewise be punished capitally. 

6. If any one, deceived by the devil, shall have believed, after 
the manner of the pagans, that any man or woman is a witch 
and eats men, and on this account shall have burned the person, 
or shall have given the person's flesh to others to eat, or shall 
have eaten it himself, let him be punished by a capital sentence. 

7. If any one, in accordance with pagan rites, shall have 
caused the body of a dead man to be burned, and shall have re- 
duced his bones to ashes, let him be punished capitally. 

8. If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter, concealed 
among them, shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, 
Refusal to be ^^'^ shall have scorned to come to baptism, 
baptized q^j^^ shall have wished to remain a pagan, let 
him be punished by death. 

9. If any one shall have sacrificed a man to the devil, and, 
after the manner of the pagans, shall have presented him as a 
victim to the demons, let him be punished by death. 

10. If any one shall have formed a conspiracy with the pagans 

against the Christians, or shall have wished to join with them 

_ . in opposition to the Christians, let him be pun- 

Conspiracy ^^ ' ^ 

against Chris- ished by death; and whosoever shall have con- 
sented fraudulently to this same against the 
king and the Christian people, let him be punished by death. 

11. If any one shall have shown himself unfaithful to the 
lord king, let him be punished with a capital sentence. 

1 The apparent harshness of this whole body of ..regulations was considera- 
bly diminished in practice by the large discretion left to the priests, as in 
this case. They were exhorted to exercise care and to take circumstances 
into account in judging a man's guilt or innocence. 



122 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

13. If any one shall have killed his lord or lady, let him be 
punished in a like manner. 

14. If, indeed, for these mortal crimes secretly committed 
any one shall have fled of his own accord to a priest, and after 
confession shall have wished to do penance, let him be freed by 
the testimony of the priest from death. . , .^ 

18. On the Lord's day no meetings or public judicial assem- 
blages shall be held, unless perchance in a case of great neces- 
Observance sity, or when war compels it, but all shall go to 
and of festival church to hear the word of God, and shall be free 
days for prayers or good works. Likewise, also, on the 
special festivals they shall devote themselves to God and to the 
services of the Church, and shall refrain from secular assemblies. 

19. Likewise, it has been pleasing to insert in these decrees 
that all infants shall be baptized within a year; and we have 
Baptism of decreed this, that if any one shall have refused 
infants ^q bring his infant to baptism within the course 
of a year, without the advice or permission of the priest, if he is 
a noble he shall pay 120 soUdi^ to the treasury; if a freeman, 60; 
if a litus, 30.^ 

20. If any one shall have contracted a prohibited or illegal 
marriage, if a noble, 60 solidi ; if a freeman, 30; if a litus, 15. 

21. If any one shall have made a vow at springs or trees or 
Keeping up groves,^ or shall have made an offering after the 
heathen rites manner of the heathen and shall have partaken 
of a repast in honor of the demons, if he shall be a noble, 60 

1 From this point the capitulary deals with the "lesser chapters," i. e., non- 
capital offenses. 

2 For the value of the solidus, see p. 61. 

3 Three classes of society are distinguished — nobles, freemen, and serfs. 
The ordinary freeman pays half as much as the noble, and the serf half as 
much as the freeman. 

4 A prominent characteristic of the early Teutonic religion was that its 
ceremonies were invariably conducted out of doors. Tacitus, in the Ger- 
mania (Chap. 9) , tells us that the Germans had no temples or other buildings 
for religious purposes, but worshipped in sacred groves. The "Irmensaule," 
probably a giant tree-trunk, was the central shrine of the Saxon people, 
and Charlemagne's destruction of it in 772 was the most serious offense 
that could have been committed against them,. 



CAPITULARY CONCERNING THE SAXON TERRITORY 123 

solidi ; if a freeman, 30; if a litus, 15. If, indeed, they have not 
the means of paying at once, they shah be given into the ser- 
vice of the Church until the solidi are paid. 

22.' We command that the bodies of Saxon Christians shall be 
carried to the church cemeteries, and not to the mounds of the 
pagans. 

23. We have ordered that diviners and soothsayers shall be 
handed over to the churches and priests. 

24. Concerning robbers and malefactors who shall have fled 
from one county to another, if any one shall receive them into 
Fugitive his protection and shall keep them with him for 
criminals seven nights,^ except for the purpose of bringing 
them to justice, let him pay our ban.' Likewise, if a count ^ shall 
have concealed them, and shall be unwilling to bring them forward 
so that justice may be done, and is not able to excuse himself for 
this, let him lose his office. 

26. No one shall presume to impede any man coming to us 
to seek justice; and if any one shall have attempted to do this, 
he shall pay our ban. 

34. We have forbidden that Saxons shall hold public assem- 
blies in general, unless perchance our missus ^ shall have caused 
Public them to come together in accordance with our 

assemblies command; but each count shall hold judicial 

assemblies and administer justice in his jurisdiction. And this 
shall be cared for by the priests, lest it be done otherwise.^ 

iThe Germans reckoned by nights rather than by days, as explained by 
Tacitus, Germania, Chap. 1 1 [see p. 27]. 

2 A sum assessed by the king, in this case against the illegal harboring 
of criminals. 

3 The counts, together with the bishops, were the local representatives or 
agents of the king. They presided over judicial assemblies, collected reve- 
nues, and preserved order. There were about three hundred of them in 
Charlemagne's empire when at its greatest extent. 

4 An officer sent out by the king to investigate the administration of the 
counts and render judgment in certain cases. As a rule two were sent to- 
gether, a layman and an ecclesiastic [see p. 134]. 

5 Under ordinary circumstances the priests were thus charged with the 
responsibihty of seeing that local government in their various communities 
was just and legal. 



124 THE AGE OP CHARLEMAGNE 

18. The Capitulary Concerning the Royal Domains (cir. 800) 

The revenues which came into Charlemagne's treasury were derived 
chiefly from his royal domains. There was no system of general tax- 
ation, such as modern nations maintain, and the funds realized from 
gifts, fines, rents, booty, and tribute money, were quite insufficient to 
meet the needs of the court, modest though they were. Charlemagne's 
interest in his villas, or private farms, was due therefore not less to his 
financial dependence upon them than to his personal liking for thrifty 
agriculture and thoroughgoing administration. The royal domains of 
the Frankish kingdom, already extensive at Charlemagne's accession, 
were considerably increased during his reign. It has been well said 
that Charlemagne was doubtless the greatest landed proprietor of the 
realm and that he "supervised the administration of these lands as a 
sovereign who knows that his power rests partly on his riches." ^ He 
gave the closest personal attention to his estates and was always watch- 
ful lest he be defrauded out of even the smallest portion of their prod- 
ucts which was due him. The capitulary De Villis, from which the 
following passages have been selected, is a lengthy document in which 
Charlemagne sought to prescribe clearly and minutely the manifold 
duties of the stewards in charge of these estates. We may regard it, 
however, as in the nature of an ideal catalogue of what the king would 
like to have on his domains rather than as a definite statement of 
what was always actually to be found there. From it may be gleaned 
many interesting facts regarding rural life in western Europe during 
the eighth and ninth centuries. Its date is uncertain, but it was about 
800 — possibly somewhat earlier. 

Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.) , Vol. I. , 
No. 32, pp. 82-91. Translated by Roland P. Falkner in Univ. of 
Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. III., No. 2, pp. 2-4. 

62.2 -y^g desire that each steward shall make an annual state- 
ment of all our income, with an account of our lands cultivated 
by the oxen which our plowmen drive, and of our lands which 

1 B^mont and Monod, Mediceval Europe (New York, 1902), p. 202. 

2 Chapter 62 is here given out of order because it contains a compre- 
hensive survey of the products and activities upon which the royal stewards 
were expected to report. The other chapters are more specific. It is likely 
that they have not come down to us in their original order. 



CAPITULARY CONCERNING THE ROYAL DOMAINS 125 

the tenants of farms ought to plow;^ an account of the pigs, of 
the rents,^ of the obhgations and fines; of the game taken in our 
forests without our permission; of the various compositions;^ of 
the mills, of the forest, of the fields, and of the bridges and ships; 
of the freemen and the districts under obligations to our treas- 
ury; of markets, vineyards, and those who owe wine to us; of 
Report to be ^^® ^^Y^ fire-wood, torches, planks, and other kinds 
made to the of lumber; of the waste-lands; of the vegetables, 
stewards each millet, and panic ;^ and of the wool, flax, and hemp; 
Christmas-tide ^^ ^Yie fruits of the trees ; of the nut trees, larger and 
smaller; of the grafted trees of all kinds; of the gardens; of the 
turnips; of the fish-ponds; of the hides, skins, and horns; of the 
honey and wax; of the fat, tallow and soap; of the mulberry wine, 
cooked wine, mead, vinegar, beer, wine new and old; of the new 
grain and the old; of the hens and eggs; of the geese; of the number 
of fishermen, smiths, sword-makers, and shoe-makers; of the bins 
and boxes; of the turners and saddlers; of the forges and mines, 
that is iron and other mines; of the lead mines; of the colts and 
fillies. They shall make all these known to us, set forth separately 
and in order, at Christmas, in order that we may know what and 
how much of each thing we have. 

23. On each of our estates our stewards are to have as many 
Domestic cow-houses, pig-sties, sheep-folds, stables for 

animals goats, as possible, and they ought never to be with- 

out these. And let them have in addition cows furnished by our 



1 The ordinary estate in this period, whether royal or not, consisted of two 
parts. One was the demesne, which the owner kept under his immediate 
control; the other was the remaining lands, which were divided among ten- 
ants who paid certain rentals for their use and also performed stated serv- 
ices on the lord's demesne. Charlemagne instructs his stewards to report 
upon both sorts of land. 

2 Probably payments for the right to keep pigs in the woods. The most 
common meat in the Middle Ages was pork and the use of the oak forests 
as hog pasture was a privilege of considerable value. 

3 Fines imposed upon offenders to free them from crime or to repair 
damages done. 

4 Panic was a kind of grass, the seeds of which were not infrequently used 
for food. 



126 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

serfs ^ for performing their service, so that the cow-houses and 
plows shall be in no way diminished by the service on our de- 
mesne. And when they have to provide meat, let them have 
steers lame, but healthy, and cows and horses which are not 
mangy, or other beasts which are not diseased and, as we have 
said, our cow-houses and plows are not to be diminished for this. 

34. They must provide with the greatest. care that whatever 
is prepared or made with the hands, that is, lard, smoked meat. 
Cleanliness salt meat, partially salted meat, wine, vinegar, 
enjoined mulberry wine, cooked wine, garns,^ mustard, 

cheese, butter, malt, beer, mead, honey, wax, flour, all should 
be prepared and made with the greatest cleanliness. 

40. That each steward on each of our domains shall always 
have, for the sake of ornament, swans, peacocks, pheasants, 
ducks, pigeons, partridges, turtle-doves. 

42. That in each of our estates, the chambers shall be provided 
with counterpanes, cushions, pillows, bed-clothes, coverings 
Household for the tables and benches; vessels of brass, lead, 
furniture j^qj^ q^^ wood; andirons, chains, pot-hooks, adzes, 
axes, augers, cutlasses, and all other kinds of tools, so that it 
shall never be necessary to go elsewhere for them, or to borrow 
them. And the weapons, which are carried against the enemy, 
shall be well-cared for, so as to keep them in good condition; and 
when they are brought back they shall be placed in the chamber. 

43. For our women's work they are to give at the proper time, 
as has been ordered, the materials, that is the linen, wool, woad,^ 
vermilion, madder,^ wool-combs, teasels,^ soap, grease, vessels, 
and the other objects which are necessary. 

1 The serfs were a semi-free class of country people. They did not own 
the land on which they lived and were not allowed to move off it without 
the owner's consent. They cultivated the soil and paid rents of one kind or 
another to their masters — in the present case, to the agents of the king. 

2 A variety of fermented liquor made of salt fish. 

3 A blue coloring matter derived from the leaves of a plant of the same 
name. 

4 A red coloring matter derived from a plant of the same name. 

5 Burrs of the teasel plant, stiff and prickly, with hooked bracts; used in 
primitive manufacturing for raising a nap on woolen cloth. 



INVENTORY OF ONE OF CHARLEMAGNE's ESTATES 127 

44. Of the food products other than meat, two-thirds shall be 

sent each year for our own use, that is of the vegetables, fish, 

Supplies to be cheese, butter, honey, mustard, vineear, millet, 
furnished the . -^ > & > j 

king panic, dried and green herbs, radishes, and in 

addition of the wax, soap and other small products; and they 

shall tell us how much is left by a statement, as we have said 

above; and they shall not neglect this as in the past; because 

from those two-thirds, we wish to know how much remains. 

45. That each steward shall have in his district good work- 
men, namely, blacksmiths, gold-smith, silver-smith, shoe-makers. 
Workmen on turners, carpenters, sword-makers, fishermen, 
the estates foilers, soap-makers, men who know how to make 
beer, cider, berry, and all the other kinds of beverages, bakers to 
make pastry for our table, net-makers who know how to make 
nets for hunting, fishing and fowling, and the others who are too 
numerous to be designated. 

19. An Inventory of One of Charlemagne's Estates 

In the following inventory we have a specimen of the annual state- 
ments required by Charlemagne from the stewards on his royal do- 
mains. The location of Asnapium is unknown, but it is evident that 
this estate was one of the smaller sort. Like all the rest, it was liable 
occasionally to become the temporary abiding place of the king. The 
detailed character of the inventory is worthy of note, as is also the 
number of industries which must have been engaged in by the inhabi- 
tants of the estate and its dependent villas. 

Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Pertz ed.). Vol. I., 
pp. 178-179. 

We found in the imperial estate of Asnapium a royal house 

-, ., J. built of stone in the very best manner, having 

Buildmgs on j ; & 

the estate of 3 rooms. The entire house was surrounded with 

balconies and it had 11 apartments for women. 

Underneath was 1 cellar. There were 2 porticoes. There 

were 17 other houses built of wood within the court-yard, with 



128 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

a similar number of rooms and other fixtures, all well constructed. 
There was 1 stable, 1 kitchen, 1 mill, 1 granary, and 3 barns. 

The yard was enclosed with a hedge and a stone gateway, and 
above was a balcony from which distributions can be made. 
There was also an inner yard, surrounded by a hedge, well ar- 
ranged, and planted with various kinds of trees. 

Of vestments: coverings for 1 bed, 1 table-cloth, and 1 towel. 

Of utensils: 2 brass kettles; 2 drinking cups; 2 brass cauldrons; 
1 iron cauldron; 1 frying-pan; 1 gramalmin; 1 pair of andirons; 
1 lamp; 2 hatchets; 1 chisel; 2 augers; 1 axe; 1 knife; 1 large 
plane; 1 small plane; 2 scythes; 2 sickles; 2 spades edged with 
iron; and a sufficient supply of utensils of wood. 

Of farm produce : old spelt ^ from last year, 90 baskets which 
can be made into 450 weight^ of flour; and 100 measures^ of 
Supplies of barley. From the present year, 110 baskets of 
various sorts spelt, of which 60 baskets had been planted, but 
the rest we found; 100 measures of wheat, 60 sown, the rest we 
found; 98 measures of rye all sown; 1,800 measures of barley, 
1,100 sown, the rest we found; 430 measures of oats; 1 measure 
of beans; 12 measures of peas. At 5 mills were found 800 meas- 
ures of small size. At 4 breweries, 650 measures of small size, 
240 given to the prebendaries,'* the rest we found. At 2 bridges, 
60 measures of salt and 2 shillings. At 4 gardens, 11 shillings. 
Also honey, 3 measures; about 1 measure of butter; lard, from 
last year 10 sides; new sides, 200, with fragments and fats; cheese 
from the present year, 43 weights. 

Of cattle: 51 head of larger cattle; 5 three-year olds; 7 two- 
year olds; 7 yearlings; 10 two-year old colts; 8 yearlings; 3 

1 A kind of grain still widely cultivated for food in Germany and Switzer- 
land; sometimes known as German wheat. 

2 The unit of weight was the pound. Charlemagne replaced the old Gallic 
poiuid by the Roman, which was a tenth less. 

3 The unit of measiu'e was the muid. Charlemagne had a standard measure 
(modius publicus) constructed and in a number of his capitularies enjoined 
that it be taken as a model by all his subjects. It contained probably a 
little less than six pecks. A smaller measure was the setter, containing about 
five and two-thirds pints. 

4 Clergymen attached to the church on or near the estate. 



INVENTORY OF ONE OF CHARLEMAGNe's ESTATES 129 

stallions; 16 cows; 2 asses; 50 cows with calves; 20 young bulls; 
38 yearling calves; 3 bulls; 260 hogs; 100 pigs; 5 boars; 150 
Kinds and num- sheep with lambs; 200 yearling lambs; 120 rams; 
ber of animals 30 goats with kids; 30 yearling kids; 3 male goats; 
30 geese; 80 chickens; 22 peacocks. 

Also concerning the manors ^ which belong to the above man- 
sion. In the villa of Grisio we found domain buildings, where 
there are 3 barns and a yard enclosed by a hedge. There were, 
besides, 1 garden with trees, 10 geese, 8 ducks, 30 chickens. 

In another villa we found domain buildings and a yard sur- 
rounded by a hedge, and within 3 barns; 1 arpent^ of vines; 1 
garden with trees; 15 geese; 20 chickens. 

In a third villa, domain buildings, with 2 barns; 1 granary; 1 
garden and 1 yard well enclosed by a hedge. 

We found all the dry and liquid measures just as in the palace. 
We did not find any goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, 
huntsmen, or persons engaged in other services. 

The garden herbs which we found were lily, putchuck,^ mint, 
parsley, rue, celery, libesticum, sage, savory, juniper, leeks, gar- 
Vegetables lie, tansy, wild mint, coriander, scullions, onions, 
and trees cabbage, kohlrabi,^ betony.^ Trees : pears, apples, 
medlars, peaches, filberts, walnuts, mulberries, quinces,^ 

1 "Attached to the royal villa, in the center of which stood the palace or 
manse, were numerous dependent and humbler dwellings, occupied by me- 
chanics, artisans, and tradesmen, or rather manufacturers and craftsmen, 
in great numbers. The dairy, the bakery, the butchery, the brewery, the 
flour-mill were there. . . . The villa was a city in embryo, and in due 
course it grew into one, for as it supplied in many respects the wants of the 
surrounding country, so it attracted population and became a center of 
commerce." — Jacob I. Mombert, Charles the Great (New York, 1888), pp. 
401-402. 

2 An ancient Gallic land measure, equivalent to about half a Roman juge- 
rum (the jugerum was about two-thirds of an acre). The arpent in modern 
France has varied greatly in different localities. In Paris it is 4,088 square 
yards. 

3 The same as "pachak." The fragrant roots of this plant are still ex- 
ported from India to be used for burning as incense. 

4 A kind of cabbage. The edible part is a large turnip-like swelling of the 
stem above the surface of the ground. , 

5 A plant used both as a medicine and as a dye. 

" "AH the cereals grown in the country were cultivated. The flower gar- 

Med. Hist.— 9 



130 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

20. Charlemagne Crowned Emperor (800) 

The occasion of Charlemagne's jDresence in Rome in 800 was a con- 
flict between Pope Leo III. and a faction of the populace led b}'' two 
nephews of the preceding pope, Hadrian I. It seems that in 799 Leo 
had been practically driven out of the papal capital and imprisoned 
in a neighboring monastery, but that through the planning of a sub- 
ordinate official he had soon contrived to escape. At any rate he got 
out of Italy as speedily as he could and made his way across the Alps 
to seek aid at the court of Charlemagne. The Frankish king was still 
busy with the Saxon war and did not allow the prospect of a papal 
visit to interfere with his intended campaign; but at Paderborn, in 
the very heart of the Saxon country, where he could personally direct 
the operations of his troops, he established his headquarters and awaited 
the coming of the refugee pope. The meeting of the two dignitaries 
resulted in a pledge of the king once more to take up the burden of 
defending the Roman Church and the Vicar of Christ, this time not 
against outside foes but against internal disturbers. After about a 
year Charlemagne repaired to Rome and called upon the Pope and his 
adversaries to appear before him for judgment. When the leaders 
of the hostile faction refused to comply, they were summarily con- 
demned to death, though it is said that through the generous advice 
of Leo they were afterwards released on a sentence of exile. During 
the ceremonies which followed in celebration of Christmas occurred 
the famous coronation which is described in the two passages given 
below. 

Although the coronation has been regarded as so important as to 
have been called "the central event of the Middle Ages," ^ it is by no 
means an easy task to determine precisely what significance it was 
thought to have at the time. We can look back upon it now and see 

dens were furnished with the choicest specimens for beauty and fragrance, 
the orchards and kitchen gardens produced the richest and best varieties 
of fruit and vegetables. Charles specified by name not less than seventy- 
four varieties of herbs which he commanded to be cultivated; all the vege- 
tables still raised in Central Europe, together with many herbs now found 
in botanical gardens only, bloomed on his villas; his orchards yielded a rich 
harvest in cherries, apples, pears, prunes, peaches, figs, chestnuts, and 
mulberries. The hill-sides were vineyards laden with the finest varieties of 
grapes." — Mombert, Charles the Great, p. 400. 

1 James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed.. New York, 1904), 
p. 50. 



CHARLEMAGNE CROWNED EMPEROR 131 

that it marked the beginning of the so-called " Holy Roman Empire " — 
a creation that endured in fact only a very short time but whose name 
and theory survived all the way down to Napoleon's reorganization of 
the German states in 1806. One view of the matter is that Charle- 
magne's coronation meant that a Frankish king had become the suc- 
cessor of Emperor Constantine VI., just deposed at Constantinople, 
and that therefore the universal Roman Empire was again to be ruled 
from a western capital as it had been before the time of the first Con- 
stantine. It will be observed that extract (a), taken from the Annals 
of Lauresheim, and therefore of German origin, at least suggests this 
explanation. But, whether or not precisely this idea was in the mind 
of those who took part in the ceremony, in actual fact no such transfer 
of universal sovereignty from Constantinople to the Frankish capital 
ever took place. The Eastern Empire lived right on under its own 
hne of rulers and, so far as we know, aside from some rather vague 
negotiations for a marriage of Charlemagne and the Empress Irene, 
the new western Emperor seems never to have contemplated the ex- 
tension of his authority over the East. His great aspiration had been 
to" consolidate all the Germanic peoples of western continental Europe 
under the leadership of the Franks; that, by 800, he had practically done ; 
he had no desire to go farther. His dominion was always limited strictly 
to the West, and at the most he can be regarded after 800 as not more 
than the reviver of the old western half of the Empire, and hence as 
the successor of Romulus Augustulus. But even this view is perhaps 
somewhat strained. The chroniclers of the time liked to set up fine 
theories of the sort, and later it came to be to the interest of papal and 
imperial rivals to make large use, in one way or another, of such theo- 
ries. But we to-day may look upon the coronation as nothing more 
than a formal recognition of a condition of things already existing. 
By his numerous conquests Charlemagne had drawn under his control 
such a number of peoples and countries that his position had come to 
be that which we think of as an emperor's rather than that of simple 
king of the Franks. The Pope did not give Charlemagne his empire; 
the energetic king had built it for himself. At the most, what Leo did 
was simply to bestow a title already earned and to give with it presum- 
ably the blessing and favor of the Church, whose devoted servant 
Charlemagne repeatedly professed to be. That the idea of imperial 



132 THE AGE OF CHAELEMAGNE 

unity still survived in the West is certain, and without doubt many 
men looked upon the ceremony of 800 as re-establishing such unity; 
but as events worked out it was not so much Charlemagne's empire 
as the papacy itself that was the real continuation of the power of the 
Csesars. Conditions had so changed that it was impossible in the 
nature of things for Charlemagne to be a Roman emperor in the old 
sense. The coronation gave him a new title and new prestige, but 
no new subjects, no larger army, no more princely income. The basis 
of his power continued to be, in every sense, his Prankish kingdom. 
The structural element in the revived empire was Frankish; the Roman 
was merely ornamental. 

Sources — (a) Annates Laureshamensis ["Annals of Lauresheim "], Chap. 34. 
Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), 
Vol. I., p. 38. 

(b) VitoB Pontificorum Romanorum[" Liives of the Roman Pontiffs "]. 
Text in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Vol. III., pp. 284- 
285. 

(a) 

And because the name of emperor had now ceased among the 
Greeks, and their empire was possessed by a woman,^ it seemed 
both to Leo the pope himself, and to all the holy fathers who 
were present in the self-same council,^ as well as to the rest of 
the Christian people, that they ought to take to be emperor 
Charles, king of the Franks, who held Rome herself, where the 
Caesars had always been wont to sit, and all the other regions 

1 Irene, the wife of Emperor Leo IV. After the death of her husband in 
780 she became regent during the minority of her son, Constantino VI., then 
only nine years of age. In 790 Constantine succeeded in taking the govern- 
ment out of her hands; but seven years afterwards she caused him to be 
blinded and shut up in a dungeon, where he soon died. The revolting crimes 
by which Irene established her supremacy at Constantinople were considered, 
even in her day, a disgrace to Christendom. 

2 This expression has given rise to a view which will be found in some 
books that Pope Leo convened a general council of Frankish and Italian 
clergy to consider the advisability of giving the imperial title to Charle- 
magne. The whole matter is in doubt, but it does not seem likely that there 
was any such formal deliberation. Leo certainly ascertained that the leading 
lay and ecclesiastical magnates would approve the contemplated step, but 
that a definite election in council took place may be pretty confidently de- 
nied. The writer of the Annals of Lauresheim was interested in making the 
case of Charlemagne, and therefore of the later emperors, as strong as possi- 
ble. 



CHARLEMAGNE CROWNED EMPEROR 133 

which he ruled through Italy and Gaul and Germany; and inas- 
much as God had given all these lands into his hand, it seemed 
right that with the help of God, and at the prayer of the whole 
Christian people, he should have the name of emperor also. 
[The Pope's] petition King Charles willed not to refuse,^ but sub- 
mitting himself with all humility to God, and at the prayer of 
the priests, and of the whole Christian people, on the day of the 
nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, he took on himself the name 
of emperor, being consecrated by the Pope Leo. . . . For 
this also was done by the will of God . . . that the heathen 
might not mock the Christians if the name of emperor should 
have ceased among them. 

(b) 

After these things, on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, when all the people were assembled in the Church of the 
blessed St. Peter,^ the venerable and gracious Pope with his own 
hands crowned him [Charlemagne] with an exceedingly precious 
crown. Then all the faithful Romans, beholding the choice of 
such a friend and defender of the holy Roman Church, and of 

1 Einhard, Charlemagne's biographer, says that the king at first had such 
aversion to the titles of Emperor and Augustus "that he declared he would 
not have set foot in the church the day that they were conferred, although 
it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope" 
(Vita Caroli Magni, Chap. 28). Despite this statement, however, we are not 
to regard the coronation as a genuine surprise to anybody concerned. In 
all probability there had previously been a more or less definite understand- 
ing between the king and the Pope that in due time the imperial title should 
be conferred. It is easy to believe, though, that Charlemagne had had no 
idea that the ceremony was to be performed on this particular occasion and 
it is likely enough that he had plans of his own as to the proper time and 
place for it, plans which Leo rather rudely interfered with, but which the 
manifest good-wiU of everybody constrained the king to allow to be sacri- 
ficed. It may well be that Charlemagne had decided simply to assume the 
imperial crown without a papal coronation at all, in order that the whole 
question of papal supremacy, which threatened to be a troublesome one, 
might be kept in the background. 

2 The celebration of the Nativity was by far the greatest festival of the 
Church. At this season the basilica of St. Peter at Rome was the scene of 
gorgeous ceremonials, and to its sumptuous shrine thronged the devout of 
all Christendom. Its magnificence on the famous Christmas of 800 was 
greater than ever, for only recently Charlemagne had bestowed the most 
costly of all his gifts upon it — the spoils of the Avar wars. 



134 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

the pontiff, did by the will of God and of the blessed Peter, the 
key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom, cry with a loud voice, "To 
Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned of God, the great and 
peace-giving Emperor, be life and victory." While he, before 
the altar of the church, was calling upon many of the saints, it 
was proclaimed three times, and by the common voice of all he 
was chosen to be emperor of the Romans. Then the most holy 
high priest and pontiff anointed Charles with holy oil, and also 
his most excellent son to be king,^ upon the very day of the birth 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

21. The General Capitulary for the Missi (802) 

Throughout the larger part of Charlemagne's dominion the chief 
local unit of administration was the county, presided over by the count. 
The count was appointed by the Emperor, generally from among the 
most important landed proprietors of the district. His duties included 
the levy of troops, the publication of the royal decrees or capitularies, 
the administration of justice, and the collection of revenues. On the 
frontiers, where the need of defense was greatest, these local officers 
exercised military functions of a special character and were commonly 
known as "counts of the march," or dukes, or sometimes as margraves. 
In order that these royal officials, in whatever part of the country, 
might not abuse their authority as against their fellow-subjects, or 
engage in plots against the unity of the empire, Charlemagne devised a 
plan of sending out at stated intervals men who were known as missi 
dominici ("the lord's messengers") to visit the various counties, hear 
complaints of the people, inquire into the administration of the counts, 
and report conditions to the Emperor. They were to serve as connecting, 
links between the central and local governments and as safeguards 
against the ever powerful forces of disintegration. Such itinerant 
royal agents had not been unknown in Merovingian times, and they 
had probably been made use of pretty frequently by Charles Martel 

1 Charles, the eldest son, since 789 king of Maine. In reality, of course, 
he was but an under-king, since Maine was an integral part of Charlemagne's 
dominion. He was anointed by Pope Leo in 800 as heir-apparent to the new 
imperial dignity of his father. 



THE GENERAL CAPITULARY FOR THE MISSI 135 

and Pepin the Short. But it was Charlemagne who reduced the em- 
ployment of missi to a system and made it a fixed part of the govern- 
mental machinery of the Frankish kingdom. This he did mainly by 
the Capitulare Missorum Generate, promulgated early in 802 at an 
assembly at the favorite capital Aix-la-Chapelle. The whole empire 
was divided into districts, or missaticce, and each of these was to be 
visited annually by two of the missi. A churchman and a layman 
were usually sent out together, probably because they were to have 
jurisdiction over both the clergy and the laity, and also that they 
might restrain each other from injustice or other misconduct. They 
were appointed by the Emperor, at first from his lower order of vassals, 
but after a time from the leading bishops, abbots, and nobles of the 
empire. They were given power to depose minor officials for mis- 
demeanors, and to summon higher ones before the Emperor. By 812, 
at least, they were required to make four rounds of inspection each 
year. 

In the capitulary for the missi Charlemagne took occasion to include 
a considerable number of regulations and instructions regarding the 
general character of the local governments, the conduct of local officers, 
the manner of life of the clergy, the management of the monasteries, 
and other things of vital importance to the strength of the empire 
and the well-being of the people. The capitulary may be regarded as 
a broad outline of policy and conduct which its author, lately become 
emperor, wished to see realized throughout his vast dominion. 

Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.). Vol. I. , 
No. 33, pp. 91-99. Translated by Dana C. Munro in Univ. of 
Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 16-27. 

1. Concerning the embassy sent out by the lord emperor. 
• Therefore, the most serene and most Christian lord emperor 
Charles has chosen from his nobles the wisest and most prudent 
The missi men, both archbishops and some of the other 

sent out bishops also, and venerable abbots and pious 

laymen, and has sent them throughout his whole kingdom, and 
through them he would have all the various classes of persons 
mentioned in the following chapters live in accordance with 



136 THE AGE OF CHAKLEMAGNE 

the correct law. Moreover, where anything which is not right 
and just has been enacted in the law, he has ordered them to 
inquire into this most diligently and to inform him of it. He 
desires, God granting, to reform it. And let no one, through his 
cleverness or craft, dare to oppose or thwart the written law, as 
many are wont to do, or the judicial sentence passed upon him, 
or to do injury to the churches of God, or the poor, or the widows, 
or the wards, or any Christian. But all shall live entirely in 
accordance with God's precept, honestly and under a just rule, 
and each one shall be admonished to live in harmony with his 
fellows in his business or profession; the canonical clergy^ ought 
to observe in every respect a canonical life without heeding base 
gain; nuns ought to keep diligent watch over their lives; laymen 
and the secular clergy ^ ought rightly to observe their laws with- 
out malicious fraud; and all ought to live in mutual charity and 
perfect peace. 

And let the missi themselves make a diligent investigation 
whenever any man claims that an injustice has been done him 
by any one, just as they desire to deserve the grace of omnipotent 
God and to keep their fidelity promised to Him, so that in all 
cases, in accordance with the will and fear of God, they shall 
administer the law fully and justly in the case of the holy churches 
of God and of the poor, of wards and widows, and of the whole 
people. And if there be anything of such a nature that they. 
The duties together with the provincial counts, are not able 

of the missi of themselves to correct it and to do justice 
concerning it, they shall, without any reservation, refer it, to- 
gether with their reports, to the judgment of the emperor; and 

iThe term "canonical" was applied more particularly to the clergy- 
attached to a cathedral church, the clergy being known individually as 
"canons," collectively as a " chapter." In the present connection, however, 
it probably refers to the monks, who, living as they did by "canons" or 
rules, were in that sense " canonical clergy." 

2 The secular clergy were the bishops, priests, deacons, and other church 
officers, who lived with the people in the sceculum, or world, as distinguished 
from the monks, ascetics, cenobites, anchorites, and others, who dwelt in 
monasteries or other places of seclusion. 



THE GENERAL CAPITULARY FOR THE MISSI 137 

the straight path of justice shall not be impeded by any one on 
account of flattery or gifts, or on account of any relationship, 
or from fear of the powerful.^ 

2. Concerning the fidelity to be promised to the lord emperor. 
He has commanded that every man in his whole kingdom, 

whether ecclesiastic or layman, and each one according to his 
Oath to vow and occupation, should now promise to him 

Chariemaffne ^^ emperor the fidelity which he had previously 
as emperor promised to him as king; and all of those who had 

not yet made that promise should do likewise, down to those 
who were twelve years old. And that it shall be announced to 
all in public, so that each one might know, how great and how 
many things are comprehended, in that oath; not merely, as many 
have thought hitherto, fidelity to the lord emperor as regards his 
life, and not introducing any enemy into his kingdom out of 
enmity, and not consenting to or concealing another's faithless- 
ness to him; but that all may know that this oath contains in 
itself the following meaning: 

3. First, that each one voluntarily shall strive, in accordance 
with his knowledge and ability, to live completely in the holy 
.^j^ , service of God, in accordance with the precept 
new oath of God and in accordance with his own promise, 
was mean because the lord emperor is unable to give to 
all individually the necessary care and disciphne. 

4. Secondly, that no man, either through perjury or any 
other wile or fraud, or on account of the flattery or gift of any 
one, shall refuse to give back or dare to take possession of or 
conceal a serf of the lord emperor, or a district, or land, or any- 
thing that belongs to him; and that no one shall presume, through 
perjury or other wile, to conceal or entice away his fugitive fis- 

1 This is really as splendid a guarantee of equality before the law as is to 
be found in Magna Charta or the Constitution of the United States. Un- 
fortunately there was not adequate machinery in the Prankish governrnent 
to enforce it, though we may suppose that while the missi continued efficient 
(which \\a.s not more than a hundred years) considerable progress was made 
in this direction. 



138 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

caline serfs ^ who unjustly and fraudulently say that they are 
free. 

5. That no one shall presume to rob or do any injury fraudu- 
lently to the churches of God, or widows, or orphans, or pilgrims;- 
for the lord emperor himself, under God and His saints, has con- 
stituted himself their protector and defender. , 

6. That no one shall dare to lay waste a benefice ^ of the lord 
emperor, or to make it his own property. 

7. That no one shall presume to neglect a summons to war 
from the lord emperor; and that no one of the counts shall be so 
presumptuous as to dare to excuse any one of those who owe 
military service, either on account of relationship, or flattery, or 
gifts from any one. 

8. That no one shall presume to impede at all in any way 
a ban ^ or command of the lord emperor, or to tamper with his 
work, or to impede, or to lessen, or in any way to act contrary 
to his will or commands. And that no one shall dare to neglect 
to pay his dues or tax. 

9. That no one, for any reason, shall make a practice in court 

of defending another unjustly, either from any desire of gain 

when the cause is weak, or by impeding a just judgment by his 

skill in reasoning, or by a desire of oppressing when the cause is 

_ ^. ^ weak. But each one shall answer for his own 

Justice to 

be rendered cause or tax or debt, unless any one is infirm or 

ignorant of pleading;''' for these the missi, or the 

chiefs who are in the court, or the judge who knows the case in 

question, shall. plead before the court; or, if it is necessary, such 

1 Serfs who worked on the fiscal lands, or, in other words, on the royal 
estates. 

2 Compare chapters 14 and 27. 

3 A benefice, as the term is here used, was land granted by the Emperor 
to a friend or dependent. The holder was to use such land on stated terms 
for his own and the Emperor's gain, but was in no case to claim ownership 
of it. 

^The word has at least three distinct meanings — a royal edict, a judicial 
fine, and a territorial jurisdiction. It is liere used in the first of these senses. 

^ There was little room under Charlemagne's system for professional 
lawyers or advocates. 



THE GENERAL CAPITULARY FOR THE MISSI 139 

a person may be allowed as is acceptable to all and knows the 
case well; but this shall be done wholly according to the con- 
venience of the chiefs or missi who are present. But in every 
case it shall be done in accordance with justice and the law; and 
no one shall have the power to impede justice by a gift, reward, 
or any kind of evil flattery, or from any hindrance of relationship. 
And no one shall unjustly consent to another in anything, but 
with all zeal and good-will all shall be prepared to carry out 
justice. 

For all the above mentioned ought to be observed by the im- 
perial oath.^ 

10. [We ordain] that bishops and priests shall live according 
to the canons ^ and shall teach others to do the same. 

11. That bishops, abbots, and abbesses who are in charge of 
others, with the greatest veneration shall strive to surpass their 
Obligations subjects in this diligence and shall not oppress 
of the clergy their subjects with a harsh rule or tyranny, but 
with a sincere love shall carefully guard the flock committed to 
them with mercy and charity, or by the examples of good works. 

14. That bishops, abbots and abbesses, and counts shall be 
mutually in accord, following the law in order to render a just 
judgment with all charity and unity of peace, and that they shall 
live faithfully in accordance with the will of God, so that always 
everywhere through them and among them a just judgment 
shall be rendered. The poor, widows, orphans, and pilgrims 
shall have consolation and defense from them; so that we, 
through the good-will of these, may deserve the reward of eternal 
life rather than punishment. 

19. That no bishops, abbots, priests, deacons, or other mem- 
bers of the clergy shall presume to have dogs for hunting, or 
hawks, falcons, and sparrow-hawks, but each shall observe fully 

1 In other words, when the oath of allegiance is taken, as it must be by 
every man and boy above the age of twelve, all the obligations mentioned 
from Chap. 3 to Chap. 9 are to be considered as assumed along with that 
of fidelity to the person and government of the Emperor. 

2 That is, the laws of the Church. 



140 THE AGE OP CHARLEMAGNE 

the canons or rule of his order. ^ If any one shall presume to do 
so, let him know that he shall lose his office. And in addition he 
shall suffer such punishment for his misconduct that the others 
will be afraid to possess such things for themselves. 

27. And we command that no one in our whole kingdom shall 
dare to deny hospitahty to rich, or poor, or pilgrims; that is, let 
no one deny shelter and fire and water to pilgrims traversing 
our country in God's name, or to any one traveling for the love 
of God, or for the safety of his own soul. 

28. Concerning embassies coming from the lord emperor. 

That the counts and centenarii ^ shall provide most carefully, as 

_, . . they desire the good-will of the lord emperor, for 

The missi j & r ; 

to be helped the missi who are sent out, so that they may go 
through their territories without any delay; and 
the emperor commands all everywhere that they see to it that no 
delay is encountered anywhere, but they shall cause the missi to 
go on their way in all haste and shall provide for them in such a 
manner as they may direct. 

32. Murders, by which a multitude of the Christian people 
perish, we command in every way to be shunned and to be 
The crime forbidden. . . . Nevertheless, lest sin should 

of murder q\qq increase, in order that the greatest enmities 

may not arise among Christians, when by the persuasions of 
the devil murders happen, the criminal shall immediately 
hasten to make amends and with all speed shall pay to the rela- 
tives of the murdered man the fitting composition for the evil 
done. And we forbid firmly that the relatives of the murdered 
man shall dare in any way to continue their enmities on account 
of the evil done, or shall refuse to grant peace to him who asks it, 
but, having given their pledges, they shall receive the fitting com- 

1 One of the greatest temptations of the mediaeval clergy was to spend 
time in hunting, to tlie neglect of religious duties. Apparently this evil was 
pretty common in Charlemagne's day. 

2 The centenarii were minor local officials, subordinate to the counts, 
and confined in authority to their particular district or "hundred." 



LETTER OF CHARLEMAGNE TO ABBOT FULRAD 141 

position and shall make a perpetual peace; moreover, the guilty 
one shall not delay to pay the composition.^ . . . But if any 
one shall have scorned to make the fitting composition, he shall 
be deprived of his property until we shall render our decision.^ 

39. That in our forests no one shall dare to steal our game, 
which we have already many times forbidden to be done; and 
Theft of ffame ^^^ ^^ again strictly forbid that any one shall 

from the royal do so in the future; just as each one desires to 
forest's 

preserve the fidelity promised to us, so let him 
take heed to himself. ... 

40. Lastly, therefore, we desire all our decrees to be known 
in the whole kingdom through our missi now sent out, either 
among the men of the Church, bishops, abbots, priests, deacons, 
canons, all monks or nuns, so that each one in his ministry or 
profession may keep our ban or decree, or where it may be fitting 
to thank the citizens for their good-will, or to furnish aid, or 
where there may be need still of correcting anything. . . . 
Where we believe there is anything unpunished, we shall so strive 
to correct it with all our zeal and will that with God's aid we 
may bring it to correction, both for our own eternal glory and 
that of all our faithful. 

22. A Letter of Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad 

In Charlemagne's governmental and military system the clergy, 
both regular and secular, had a place of large importance. From early 
Frankish times the bishoprics and monasteries had been acquiring 

1 In the Frankish kingdom, as commonly among Germanic peoples of 
the period, murder not only might be, but was expected to be, atoned for 
by a money payment to the slain man's relatives. The payment, known as 
the wergeld, would vary according to the rank of the man killed. If it were 
properly made, such "composition" was bound to be accepted as complete 
reparation for the injury. In this regulation we can discern a distinct ad- 
vance over the old system of blood-feud under which a murder almost in- 
variably led to family and clan wars. Plainly the Franks were becoming 
more civilized. 

2 If a murderer refused to pay the required composition his property was 
to be taken possession of by the Emperor's officers and the case must be laid 
before the Emperor himself. If the latter chose, he might order the restora- 
tion of the property, but this he was not likely to do. 



142 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

large landed estates on which they enjoyed peculiar political and 
judicial privileges. These lands came to the church authorities partly 
by purchase, largely by gift, and not infrequently through concessions 
by small land-holders who wished to get the Church's favor and pro- 
tection without actually moving off the little farms they had been 
accustomed to cultivate. However acquired, the lands were admin- 
istered by the clergy with larger independence than was apt to be al- 
lowed the average lay owner. Still, they were as much a part of the 
empire as before and the powerful bishops and abbots were expected to 
see that certain services were forthcoming when the Emperor found him- 
self in need of them. Among these was the duty of leading, or sending, 
a quota of troops under arms to the yearly assembly. In the selec- 
tion below we have a letter written by Charlemagne some time between 
804 and 811 to Fulrad, abbot of St. Quentin (about sixty miles north- 
east of Paris), respecting the fulfilment of this important obligation. 
The closing sentence indicates very clearly the price exacted by the 
Emperor in return for concessions of temporal authority to ecclesiasti- 
cal magnates. 

Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., 
No. 75, p. 168. 

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Charles, 
most serene, august, crowned of God, great pacific Emperor, 
who, by God's mercy, is King of the Franks and Lombards, to 
Abbot Fulrad. 

Let it be known to you that we have determined to hold our 
general assembly ^ this year in the eastern part of Saxony, on the 
River Bode, at the place which is known as Strassfurt.^ There- 

1 Beginning with the reign of Charlemagne there were really two assem- 
blies each year — one in the spring, the other in the autumn; but the one in 
the spring, the so-called "May-field," was much the more important. All 
the nobles and higher clergy attended, and if a campaign was in prospect all 
who owed military service would be called upon to bring with them their 
portion of the war-host, mth specified supplies. Charlemagne proposed all 
measures, the higher magnates discussed them vnth him, and the lower ones 
gave a perfunctory sanction to acts already determined upon. The meeting 
place was changed from year to year, being rotated irregularly among the 
royal residences, as Aix-la-ChapeUe, Paderborn, Ingelheim, and Thionville; 
occasionally they were held, as in this instance, in places otherwise almost 
unknown. 

2 Strassfurt was some distance south of Magdeburg. 



LETTER OF CHARLEMAGNE TO ABBOT FULRAD 143 

fore, we enjoin that you come to this meeting-place, with all your 
men well armed and equipped, on the fifteenth day before the 
Kalends of July, that is, seven days before the festival of St. 
John the Baptist.^ Come, therefore, so prepared with your men 
to the aforesaid place that you may be able to go thence well 
equipped in any direction in which our command shall direct; 
that is, with arms and accoutrements also, and other provisions 
The troops for war in the way of food and clothing. Each 

their equi'^- ' horseman will be expected to have a shield, a 
Dient lance, a sword, a dagger, a bow, and quivers with 

arrows; and in your carts shall be implements of various kinds, 
that is, axes, planes, augers, boards, spades, iron shovels, and 
other utensils which are necessary in an army. In the wagons 
also should be supplies of food for three months, dating from the 
time of the assembly, together with arms and clothing for six 
months. And furthermore we command that you see to it that 
you proceed peacefully to the aforesaid place, through whatever 
part of our realm your journey shall be made; that is, that you 
presume to take nothing except fodder, wood, and water. And 
let the followers of each one of your vassals march along with the 
carts and horsemen, and let the leader always be with them 
until they reach the aforesaid place, so that the absence of a 
lord may not give to his men an opportunity to do evil. 

Send your gifts,^ which you ought to present to us at our 
assembly in the middle of the month of May, to the place where 
Gifts for we then shall be. If it happens that your journey 

the Emperor shall be such that on your march you are able 
in person to present these gifts of yours to us, we shall be greatly 



* The date of the festival of St. John the Baptist was June 22. 

2 From earliest Germanic times we catch glimpses of this practice of 
requiring gifts from a king's subjects. By Charlemagne's day it had 
crystalUzed into an established custom and was a very important source of 
revenue, though other sources had been opened up which were quite unknown 
to the German sovereigns of three or four hundred years before. Ordinarily 
these gifts, in money, jewels, or provisions, were presented to the sovereign 
each year at the May assembly. 



144 • THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

pleased. Be careful to show no negligence in the future if you 
care to have our favor. 

23. The Carolingian Revival of Learning 

One of Charlemagne's chief claims to distinction is that his reign, 
largely through his own influence, comprised the most important 
period of the so-called Carolingian renaissance, or revival of learning. 
From the times of the Frankish conquest of Gaul until about the middle 
of the eighth century, education in western Europe, except in Ireland 
and Britain, was at a very low ebb and literary production quite in- 
significant. The old Roman intellectual activity had nearly ceased, 
and two or three centuries of settled life had been required to bring 
the Franks to the point of appreciating and encouraging art and letters. 
Even by Charlemagne's time people generally were far from being 
awake to the importance of education, though a few of the more far- 
sighted leaders, and especially Charlemagne himself, had come to 
lament the gross ignorance which everywhere prevailed and were 
ready to adojot strong measures to overcome it. Charlemagne was 
certainly no scholar, judged even by the standards of his own 
time; but had he been the most learned man in the world his interest 
in education could not have been greater. Before studying the se- 
lection given below, it would be well to read what Einhard said about 
his master's zeal for learning and the amount of progress he made 
personally in getting an education [see pp. 112-113]. 

The most conspicuous of Charlemagne's educational measures was 
his enlarging and strengthening of the Scola Palatina, or Palace School. 
This was an institution which had existed in the reign of his father 
Pepin, and probably even earlier. It consisted of a group of scholars 
gathered at the Frankish court for the purpose of studying and writing 
literature, educating the royal household, and stimulating learning 
throughout the countrj^-. It formed what we to-day might call an 
academy of sciences. Under Charlemagne's care it came to include 
such men of distinction as Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, 
Paulinus of Aquileia, a theologian, Peter of Pisa, a grammarian, and 
above all Alcuin, a skilled teacher and writer from the school of York 
in England. Its history falls into three main periods: (1) from the 



THE CAROLINGIAN REVIVAL OF LEARNING 145 

middle of the eighth century to the year 782— the period during which 
it was dominated by Paul the Deacon and his Italian colleagues; 

(2) from 782 to about 800, when its leading spirit was Alcuin; and 

(3) from 800 to the years of its decadence in the later ninth century, 
when Frankish rather than foreign names appear most prominently in 
its annals. 

It was Charlemagne's ideal that throughout his entire dominion 
opportunity should be open to all to obtain at least an elementary 
education and to carry their studies as much farther as they liked. 
To this end a regular system of schools was planned, beginning with 
the village school, in charge of the parish priest for the most elementary 
studies, and leading up through monastic and cathedral schools to 
the School of the Palace. In the intermediate stages, corresponding 
to our high schools and academies to-day, the subjects studied were 
essentially the same as those which received attention in the Scola 
Palatina. They were divided into two groups: (1) the trivium, in- 
cluding grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic (or philosophy), and (2) the 
quadrivium, including geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. 
The system thus planned was never fully put in operation throughout 
Frankland, for after Charlemagne's death the work which he had so 
well begun was seriously interfered with by the falling off in intellectual 
aggressiveness of the sovereigns, by civil war, and by the ravages of 
the Hungarian and Norse invaders [see p. 163]. A capitulary of 
Louis the Pious in-817, for example, forbade the continuance of sec- 
ular education in monastic schools. Still, much of what had been 
done remained, and never thereafter did learning among the Frankish 
people fall to quite so low a stage as it had passed through in the sixth 
and seventh centuries. 

Charlemagne's interest in education may be studied best of all in 
his capitularies. In the extract below we have the so-called letter 
De Litteris Colendis, written some time between 780 and 800, which, 
though addressed personally to Abbot Baugulf , of the monastery of 
Fulda, was in reality a capitulary establishing certain regulations 
regarding education in connection with the work of the monks. To 
the Church was intrusted the task of raising the level of intelligence 
among the masses, and the clergy were admonished to bring together 
the children of both freemen and serfs in schools in which they might 

Med. Hist.— 10 



146 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

be trained, even as the sons of the nobles were trained at the royal 
court. 

Source — ^Text in MonumentaGermanicB Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), Vol. I., 
No. 29, pp. 78-79. Adapted from translation by Dana C. Munro in 
Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. VI., No. 5, pp. 12-14. 

Charles, by the grace of God, king of the Franks and Lombards 
and Patrician of the Romans.^ To Abbot Baugulf, and to all the 
congregation — also to the faithful placed under your care— 
we have sent loving greetings by our ambassadors in the name 
of all-powerful God. 

Be it known, therefore, to you, devoted and acceptable to 
God, that we, together with our faithful, have deemed it expe- 
Men of the dient that the bishoprics and monasteries in- 

S the wofk*^ trusted by the favor of Christ to our control, in 
of education addition to the order of monastic life and the 
relationships of holy religion, should be zealous also in the cher- 
ishing of letters, and in teaching those who by the gift of God are 
able to learn, according as each has capacity. So that, just as 
the observance of the rule ^ adds order and grace to the integrity 
of morals, so also zeal in teaching and learning may do the same 
for sentences, to the end that those who wish to please God by 
living rightly should not fail to please Him also by speaking cor- 
rectly. For it is written, "Either from thy words thou shall be 
justified or from thy words thoU shalt be condemned " [Matt., xii. 
37]. Although right conduct may be better than knowledge, 
nevertheless knowledge goes before conduct. Therefore each one 
ought to study what he desires to accomplish, in order that so 
much the more fully the mind may know what ought to be done. 



1 The title "Patricius of Rome" was conferred oh Charlemagne by Pope 
Hadrian I., in 774. Its bestowal was a token of papal appreciation of the 
king's renewal of Pepin's grant of lands to the papacy. In practice the 
title had little or no meaning. It was dropped in 800 when Charlemagne 
was crowned emperor [see p. 130]. 

2 That is, the law of the Church; in case of the monasteries, more especially 
the regulations laid down for their order, e.g., the Benedictine Rule. 



THE CAROLINGIAN REVIVAL OF LEARNING 147 

as the tongue speeds in the praises of all-powerful God without 
the hindrances of mistakes. For while errors should be shunned 
Even the clergy by all men, so much the more ought they to be 
to speaS\nd avoided, as far as possible, by those who are 
write correctly chosen for this very purp'ose alone. ^ They ought 
to be the specially devoted servants of truth. For often in 
recent years when letters have been written to us from mon- 
asteries, in which it was stated that the brethren who dwelt 
there offered up in our behalf sacred and pious prayers, we 
have recognized, in most cases, both correct thoughts and 
uncouth expressions; because what pious devotion dictated 
faithfully to the mind, the tongue, uneducated on account of 
the neglect of study, was not able to express in the letter without 
error. Whence it happened that we began to fear lest perchance, 
as the skill in writing was less, so also the wisdom for understand- 
ing the Holy Scriptures might be much less than it rightly ought 
to be. And we all know well that, although errors of speech are 
dangerous, far more dangerous are errors of the understanding. 
Therefore, we exhort you not only not to neglect the study of 
letters, but also with most humble mind, pleasing to God, to 
Education es- ^^^dy earnestly in order that you may be able 
sential to an more easily and more correctly to penetrate the 
of the Scrip- mysteries of the divine Scriptures. Since, more- 
*^^®^ over, images [similes], tropes ^ and like figures 

are found in the sacred pages, nobody doubts that each one in 
reading these will understand the spiritual sense more quickly 
if previously he shall have been fully instructed in the mastery 
of letters. Such men truly are to be chosen for this work as have 
both the will and the ability to learn and a desire to instruct 

1 In the Middle Ages it was assumed that churchmen were educated; 
few other men had any claim to learning. Charlemagne here says that it 
is bad indeed when men who have been put in ecclesiastical positions be- 
cause of their supposed education fall into errors which ought to be expected 
only from ordinary people. 

2 In rhetoric a trope is ordinarily defined as the use of a word or expression 
in a different sense from that which properly belongs to it. The most com- 
mon varieties are metaphor, metonomy, synechdoche, and irony. 



148 THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

others. And may this be done with a zeal as great as the earnest- 
ness with which we command it. For we desire you to be, as 
the soldiers of the Church ought to be, devout in mind, learned 
in discourse, chaste in conduct, and eloquent in speech, so that 
when any one shall seeli to see you, whether out of reverence for 
God or on account of your reputation for holy conduct, just as 
he is edified by your appearance, he may also be instructed by 
the wisdom which he has learned from your reading or singing, 
and may go away gladly, giving thanks to Almighty God. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

24. The Oaths of Strassburg (842) 

The broad empire of Germanic peoples built up by Charlemagne was 
extremely difficult to hold together. Even before the death of its 
masterful creator, in 814, it was already showing signs of breaking up, 
and after that event the process of dissolution set in rapidly. It will 
not do to look upon this falling to pieces as caused entirely by the 
weakness of Charlemagne's successors. The trouble lay deeper, in the 
natural love of independence common to all the Germans, in the wide 
differences that had come to exist among Saxons, Lombards, Bavarians, 
Franks, and other peoples in the empire, and finally in the prevailing 
ill-advised principle of royal succession by which the territories making 
up the empire, like those composing the old Frankish kingdom, were 
regarded as personal property to be divided among the sovereign's 
sons, just as was the practice respecting private possessions. As a 
consequence of these things the generation following the death of 
Charlemagne was a period of much confusion in western Europe. The 
trouble first reached an acute stage in 817 when Emperor Louis the 
Pious, Charlemagne's son and successor, was constrained to make a 
division of the empire among his three sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis. 
The Emperor expressly stipulated that despite this arrangement there 
was to be still "one sole empire, and not three"; but it is obvious that 
the imperial unity was at least pretty seriously threatened, and when, 
in 823, Louis's second wife, Judith of Bavaria, gave birth to a son and 
immediately set up in his behalf an urgent demand for a share of the 
empire, civil war among the rival claimants could not be averted. In the 
struggle that followed the distracted Emperor completely lost his throne 
for a time (833). Thereafter he was ready to accept almost any ar- 
rangement that would enable him to live out his remaining days in 

149 



150 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

peace. When he died, in 840, two of the sons, Louis the German and 
Judith's child, who came to be known as Charles the Bald, combined 
against their brother Lothair (Pepin had died in 838) with the purpose 
of wresting from him the imperial crown, which the father, shortly 
before his death, had bestowed upon him. At least they were de- 
termined that this mark of favor from the father should not give the 
older brother any superiority over them. In the summer of 841 the 
issue was put to the test in a great battle at Fontenay, a little distance 
east of Orleans, with the result that Lothair was badly defeated. In 
February of the following year Louis and Charles, knowing that Lothair 
was still far from regarding himself as conquered, bound themselves 
by oath at Strassburg, in the vaUey of the Rhine, to keep up their 
joint opposition until they should be entirely successful. 

The pledges exchanged on this occasion are as interesting to the 
student of language as to the historian. The army which accompanied 
Louis was composed of men of almost pure Germanic blood and speech, 
while that with Charles was made up of men from what is now southern 
and western France, where the people represented a mixture of Frank- 
ish and old Roman and Galhc stocks. As a consequence Louis took 
the oath in the lingua romana for the benefit of Charles's soldiers, and 
Charles reciprocated by taking it in the lingua teudisca, in order that 
the Germans might understand it. Then the followers of the two 
kings took oath, each in his own language, that if their own king should 
violate his agreement they would not support him in acts of hostility 
against the other brother, provided the latter had been true to his word. 
The lingua romana employed marks a stage in the development of the 
so-called Romance languages of to-day — French, Spanish, and Italian- 
just as the lingua teudisca approaches the character of modern Teu- 
tonic languages — German, Dutch, and English. The oaths and the 
accompanying address of the kings are the earliest examples we have 
of the languages used by the common people of the early Middle Ages. 
Latin was of course the language of literature, records, and correspond- 
ence, matters with which ordinary people had little or nothing to 
do. The necessity under which the two kings found themselves of 
using two quite different mpdes of speech in order to be understood 
by all the soldiers is evidence that already by the middle of the ninth 
century the Romance and Germanic languages were becoming essen- 



THE OATHS OF STRASSBUEG' 151 

tially distinct. It was prophetic, too, of the fast approaching cleavage 
of the northern and southern peoples politically. 

Nithardus, whose account of the exchange of oaths at Strassburg 
is translated below, was an active participant in the events of the 
first half of the ninth century. He was born about 790, his mother 
being Charlemagne's daughter Bertha and his father the noted courtier 
and poet Angilbert. In the later years of Charlemagne's reign, and 
probably under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald, he was in charge 
of the defense of the northwest coasts against the Northmen. He 
fought for Charles the Bald at Fontenay and was frequently employed 
in those troublous years between 840 and 843 in the fruitless nego- 
tiations among the rival sons of Louis. Neither the dat^ nor the man- 
ner of his death is known. There are traditions that he was killed 
in 858 or 859 while fighting the Northmen; but other stories just as 
weU founded tell us that he became disgusted with the turmoil of the 
world, retired to a monastery, and there died about 853. His his- 
tory of the wars of the sons of Louis the Pious (covering the period 
840-843) was undertaken at the request of Charles the Bald. The 
first three books were written in 842, the fourth in 843. Aside from 
a rather too favorable attitude toward Charles, the work is very trust- 
worthy, and the claim is even made by some that among all of the 
historians of the Carolingian period, not even Einhard excepted, no 
one surpassed Nithardus in spirit, method, and insight. It may further 
be noted that Nithardus was the first historical writer of any importance 
in the Middle Ages who was not some sort of official in the Church. 

Source — Nithardus, Historiarum Libri IV. ["Four Books of Histories"], 
Bk. III., Chaps. 4-5. Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, 
Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 665-666. 

Lot-hair was given to understand that Louis and Charles were 
supporting each other with considerable armies.^ Seeing that 
his plans were crushed in every direction, he made a long but 
profitless expedition and abandoned the country about Tours. 

1 After the battle of Fontenay, June 25, 841, Charles and Louis had 
separated and Lothair had formed the design of attacking and conquering 
first one and then tlie other. He made an expedition against Charles, but 
was unable to accomplish anything before his two enemies again drew to- 
gether at Strassburg. 



152 THE EKA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

At length he returned into France,^ worn out with fatigue, as 
was also his army. Pepin,^ bitterly repenting that he had been 
Movements on Lothair's side, withdrew into Aquitaine. 
pinie3^kf843- Charles, learning that Otger, bishop of Mainz, 
842 objected to the proposed passage of Louis by 

way of Mainz to join his brother, set out by way of the city of 
Toul^ and entered Alsace at Saverne. When Otger heard of 
this, he and his supporters abandoned the river and sought 
places where they might hide themselves as speedily as possible. 
On the fifteenth of February Louis and Charles came together in 
the city formerly called Argentoratum, now known as Strassburg, 
and there they took the mutual oaths which are given herewith, 
Louis in the lingua romana and Charles in the lingua teudisca. 
Before the exchange of oaths they addressed the assembled people, 
each in his own language, and Louis, being the elder, thus began: 
"How often, since the death of our father, Lothair has pursued 
my brother and myself and tried to destroy us, is known to you 
all. So, then, when neither brotherly love, nor Christian feeling, 
nor any reason whatever could bring about a peace between us 
upon fair conditi(7ns, we were at last compelled to bring the mat- 
ter before God, determined to abide by whatever issue He might 
decree. And we, as you know, came off victorious; ^ our brother 
was beaten, and with his followers got away, each as best he 
Th s ech could. Then we, moved by brotherly love and 
of Louis the having compassion on our Christian people, were 
not willing to pursue and destroy them; but, 
still, as before, we begged that justice might be done to each. 

1 The name " Francia " was as yet confined to the country lying between 
the Loire and the Scheldt. 

2 This Pepin was a son of Pepin, the brother of Charles, Louis, and Lothair. 
Upon the death of the elder Pepin in 838 his part of the empire — the great 
region between the Loire and the Pyrenees, known as Aquitaine — had been 
taken possession of by Charles, without regard for the two surviving sons. 
It was natural, therefore, that in the struggle which ensued between Charles 
and Louis on the one side and Lothair on the other, young Pepin should have 
given such aid as he could to the latter. 

3 On the upper Moselle. 

4 This refers to the battle of Fontenay. 



THE OATHS OF STRASSBURG 153 

He, however, after all this, not content with the judgment of 
God, has not ceased to pursue me and my brother with hostile 
purpose, and to harass our peoples with fire, plunder, and murder. 
Wherefore we have been compelled to hold this meeting, and, 
since we feared that you might doubt whether our faith was 
fixed and our alliance secure, we have determined to make our 
oaths thereto in your presence. And we do this, not from any 
unfair greed, but in order that, if God, with your help, shall grant 
us peace, we may the better provide for the common welfare. 
But if, which God forbid, I shall dare to violate the oath which I 
shall swear to my brother, then I absolve each one of you from 
your allegiance and from the oath which you have sworn to 
me." 

After Charles had made the same speech in the lingua romana, 
Louis, as the elder of the two, swore first to be faithful to his 
alliance: 

Pro Deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostra commun salva- 
ment, dist di in avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si 
The oath salvaraeio cist meon fradre Karlo et in adiudha 

of Louis g^ ^-^ cadhuna cosa, si cum am per dreit son fradra 

salvar dist, in o quid il mi altresi fazet ; et ah Ludher nul plaid 
numquam prindrai, qui meon vol cist meon fradre Karle in damno 
sit.^ 

When Louis had taken this oath, Charles swore the same thing 
in the lingua teudisca: 

In Godes minna ind in thes christianes folches ind unser bed- 
hero gealtnissi, fon thesemo dage frammordes. so fram so mir 
The oath Got gewizci indi madh furgibit, so haldih tesan 

of Charles minan bruodher, soso man mit rehtu sinan 

bruodher seal, in thiu, thaz er mig sosoma duo ; indi mit Ludheren 

1 The translation of this oath is as follows: "For the love of God, and for 
the sake as well of our peoples as of ourselves, I promise. that from this day 
forth, as God shall grant me wisdom and strength, I will treat this my 
brother as one's brother ought to be treated, provided that he shall do the 
same by me. And with Lothair I will not willingly enter ii^to any dealings 
which may injure this my brother." 



154 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

in nohheiniu thing ne gegango, the minan willon imo ce scadhen 
werhen. 

The oath which the subjects of the two kings then took, each 
[people] in its own language, reads thus in the lingua romana: 

Si Lodhwigs sagrament qua son fradre Karlo jurat, conservat, 
The oath et Karlus meos sendra, de suo part, non lo stanit, 

subiect/of ttie ^^ ^^ returnar non lint pois, ne io ne neuls cui eo 
two kings returnar int pois, in nulla aiudha contra Lodhuwig 

nun li iver} 

And in the lingua teudisca: 

Oba Karl then eid then, er sineno hruodher Ludhuwige gesuor, 
geleistit, indi Ludhuwig min herro then er imo gesuor, forbrihchit, 
ohih ina es irwenden ne mag, noh ih no thero nohhein then ih es 
irwended mag, widhar Karle imo ce follusti ne wirdhic. 

25. The Treaty of Verdun (843) 

After the meeting at Strassburg, Charles and Louis advanced against 
-Lothair, who now abandoned Aachen and retreated southward past 
Chalons-sur-Marne toward Lyons. When the brothers had come into 
the vicinity of Chalons-sur-Saone, they were met by ambassadors from 
Lothair who declared that he was weary of the struggle and was ready 
to make peace if only his imperial dignity should be properly recog- 
nized and the share of the kingdom awarded to him should be somewhat 
the largest of the three. Charles and Louis accepted their brother's 
overtures and June 15, 842, the three met on an island in the Saone 
and signed preliminary articles of peace. It was agreed that a board 
of a hundred and twenty prominent men should assemble October 1 at 
Metz, on the Moselle, and make a definite division of the kingdom. 
This body, with the three royal brothers, met at the appointed time, 
but adjourned to Worms, and subsequently to Verdun, on the upper 

1 This oath, taken by the followers of the two kings, may be thus trans- 
lated: "If Louis [or Charles] shall observe the oath which he has sworn to 
his brother Charles [or Louis], and Charles [or Louis], our lord, on his side, 
should be untrue to his oath, and we should be unable to hold him to it, 
neither we nor any whom we can deter, shall give him any support." The 
oath taken by the two armies was the same, with only the names of the 
kings interchanged. 



THE TREATY OF VERDUN 155 

Meuse, in order to have the use of maps at the latter place. The treaty 
which resulted during the following year was one of the most impor- 
tant in all mediaeval times. Unfortunately the text of it has not sur- 
vived, but all its more important provisions are well known from 
the writings of the chroniclers of the period. Two such accounts of. 
the treaty, brief but valuable, are given below. 

Louis had been the real sovereign of Bavaria for sixteen years and 
to his kingdom were now added all the German districts on the right 
bank of the Rhine (except Friesland), together with Mainz, Worms, 
and Speyer on the left bank, under the general name of Francia 
Orientalis. Charles retained the western countries — Aquitaine, Gas- 
cony, Septimania, the Spanish March, Burgundy west of the Saone, 
Neustria, Brittany, and Flanders — designated collectively as Francia 
Occidentalis} The intervening belt of lands, including the two capitals 
Rome and Aachen, and extending from Terracina in Italy to the North 
Sea, went to Lothair.^ With it went the more or less nominal imperial 
dignity. In general, Louis's portion represented the coming Germany 
and Charles's the future France. But that of Lothair was utterly lack- 
ing in either geographical or racial unity and was destined not long 
to be held together J Parts of it, j^articularly modem Alsace and Lor- 
raine, have remained to this day a bone of contention between the 
states on the east and west. "The partition of 843," says Professor 
Emerton, "involved, so far as we know, nothing new in the relations 
of the three brothers to each other. The theory of the empire was 
preserved, but the meaning of it disappeared. There is no mention 
of any actual superiority of the Emperor (Lothair) over his brothers, 
and there is nothing to show that the imperial name was anything 
but an empty title, a memory of something great which men could not 
quite let die, but which for a hundred years to come was to be power- 
less for good or evil." ^ The emjDire itself was never afterwards united 
under the rule of one man, except for two years (885-887) in the time 
of Charles the Fat. 

iThis name in the course of time became simply "Francia," then 
" France." In the eastern kingdom, " Francia " gradually became restricted 
to the region about the Main, or " Franconia." 

2 It was commonly known as " Lotharii regnum," later as " Lotharingia," 
and eventually (a fragment of the kingdom only) as " Lorraine." 

3 Emerton, Mediaeval Europe (Boston, 1903), p. 30. 



156 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 



Sources — (a) Annales Bertiniani ["Annals of Saint Bertin"]. Translated 
from text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz 
ed.), Vol. I., p. 440. 

(h) Rudolfi Fuldensis Annales ["Annals of Rudolph of Fulda"]. 
Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), 
Vol. I., p. 362. 

(a) 

Charles set out to find his brothers, and they met at Verdun, 
By the division there made Louis received for his share all the 
A statement country beyond the Rhine/ and on this side 
nalTof Saint ^P^yer, Worms, Mainz, and the territories be- 
Bertin longing to these cities. Lothair received that 

which is between the Scheldt and the Rhine toward the sea, and 
that lying beyond Cambresis, Hainault, and the counties adjoin- 
ing on this side of the Meuse, down to the confluence of the Saone 
and Rhone, and thence along the Rhone to the sea, together with 
the adjacent counties. Charles received all the remainder, ex- 
tending to Spain. And when the oath was exchanged they went 
their several ways. 

(b) 

The realm had from early times been divided in three portions, 

and in the month of August the three kings, coming together at 

, ^, „ Verdun in Gaul, redivided it among themselves. 

Another from ' ° 

those of Ru- Louis received the eastern part, Charles the west- 
ern. Lothair, who was older than his brothers, 
received the middle portion. After peace was firmly established 
and oaths exchanged, each brother returned to his dominion to 
control and protect it. Charles, presuming to regard Aquitaine 
as belonging properly to his share, was given much trouble by 
his nephew Pepin,^ who annoyed him by frequent incursions and 
caused great loss. 

1 This statement is only approximately true. In reality Friesland (Frisia) 
and a strip up the east bank of the Rhine almost to the mouth of the Moselle 
went to Lothair. 

2 See p. 152, note 2. 



A NINTH CENTURY FRANKISH CHRONICLE 157 

26. A Chronicle of the Frankish Kingdom in the Ninth Century 

The following passages from the Annals of Xanten are here given 
for two purposes — to show something of the character of the period 
of the Carolingian decline, and to illustrate the peculiar features of 
the mediaeval chronicle. Numerous names, places, and events neither 
very clearly understood now, nor important if they were understood, 
occur in the text, and some of these it is not deemed worth while to 
attemjDt to explain in the foot-notes. The selection is valuable for the 
general impressions it gives rather than for the detailed facts which 
it contains, though some of the latter are interesting enough. 

Annals as a type of historical writing first assumed considerable 
importance in western Europe in the time of Charles Martel and 
Charlemagne. Their origin, like that of most forms of mediaeval lit- 
erary production, can be traced directly to the influence of the Church. 
The annals began as mere occasional notes jotted down by the monks 
upon the "Easter tables," which were circulated among the monasteries 
so that the sacred festival might not fail to be observed at the proper 
date. The Easter tables were really a sort of calendar, and as they 
were placed on parchment having a broad margin it was very natural 
that the monks should begin to write in the margin opposite the various 
years some of the things that had happened in those years. An Easter 
table might pass through a considerable number of hands and so have 
events recorded upon it by a good many different men. All sorts of 
things were thus made note of— some important, some unimportant — 
and of course it is not necessary to suppose that everything written 
down was actually true. Many mistakes were possible, especially as 
the writer often had only his memory, or perhaps mere hearsay, to 
rely upon. And when, as frequently happened, these scattered Easter 
tables were brought together in some monastery and there revised, 
fitted together, and written out in one continuous chronicle, there were 
chances at every turn for serious errors to creep in. The compilers 
were sometimes guilty of wilful misrepresentation, but more often 
their fault was only their ignorance, credulity, and lack of critical 
discernment. In these annals there was no attempt to write history 
as we now understand it; that is, the chroniclers did not undertake 
to work out the causes and results and relations of things. They merely 



158 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

recorded year by year such happenings as caught their attention — 
the succession of a new pope, the death of a bishop, the coronation of 
a king, a battle, a hail-storm, an eclipse, the birth of a two-headed 
calf — all sorts of unimportant, and from our standpoint ridiculous, 
items being thrown in along with matters of world-wide moment. 
Heterogeneous as they are, however, the large collections of annals 
that have come down to us have been used by modern historians with 
the greatest profit, and but for them we should know far less than we 
do about the Middle Ages, and especially about the people and events 
of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. 

The Annals of Xanten here quoted are the work originally of a num- 
ber of ninth century monks. The fragments from which they were 
ultimately compiled are thought to have been brought together at 
Cologne, or at least in that vicinity. They cover especially the years 
831-873. 

Source — Annates Xantenses [" Annals of Xanten ' ']. Text in Monumenta Ger- 
manice Historica, Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., p. 227. Adapted 
from translation in James H. Robinson, Readings in European 
History (New York, 1904), Vol. I., pp. 158-162. 

844. Pope Gregory departed this world and Pope Sergius 
followed in his place. ^ Count Bernhard was killed by Charles. 
Pepin, king of Aquitaine, together with his son and the son of 
Bernhard, routed the army of Charles,^ and there fell the abbot, 
Hugo. At the same time King Louis advanced with his army 
against the Wends,^ one of whose kings, Gestimus by name, 
was killed; the rest came to Louis and pledged him their fidelity, 
which, however, they broke as soon as he was gone. Thereafter 
Lothair, Louis, and Charles came together for council in Dieden- 
hofen, and after a conference they went their several ways in 
peace. 

1 Gregory IV. (827-844) was succeeded in the papal office by Sergius II. 
(844-847). 

2 By the treaty of Verdun in 843 Charles the Bald had been given Aqui- 
taine, along with the other distinctively Prankish regions of western Europe. 
His nephew Pepin, however, who had never been reconciled to Charles's 
taking possession of Aquitaine in 838, called himself king of that country 
and made stubborn resistance to his uncle's claims of sovereignty [see p. 
156]. 

3 The Wends were a Slavonic people living in the lower valley of the Oder. 



A NINTH CENTURY FRANKISH CHRONICLE 159 

845. Twice in the canton of Worms there was an earthquake; 
the first in the night following Palm Sunday, the second in the 
Th N th l^oly night of Christ's Resurrection. In the same 
in Frisia and year the heathen ^ broke in upon the Christians 

at many points, but more than twelve thousand 
of them were killed by the Frisians. Another party of invaders 
devastated Gaul; of these more than six hundred men perished. 
Yet, owing to his indolence, Charles agreed to give them many 
thousand pounds of gold and silver if they would leave Gaul, and 
this they did. Nevertheless the cloisters of most of the saints 
were destroyed and many of the Christian^ were led away 
captive. 

After this had taken place King Louis once more led a force 
against the Wends. When the heathen had learned this they 
sent ambassadors, as well as gifts and hostages, to Saxony, and 
asked for peace. Louis then granted peace and returned home 
from Saxony. Thereafter the robbers were afflicted by a terrible 
pestilence, during which the chief sinner among them, by the 
name of Reginheri, who had plundered the Christians and the 
holy places, was struck down by the hand of God. They then 
took counsel and threw lots to determine from which of their gods 
they should seek safety; but the lots did not fall out happily, and 
on the advice of one of their Christian prisoners that they should 
cast their lot before the God of the Christians, they did so, and 
the lot fell happily. Then their king, by the name of Rorik, 
together with all the heathen people, refrained from meat and 
drink for fourteen days, when the plague ceased, and they sent 
back all their Christian prisoners to their country. 

846. According to their custom, the Northmen plundered 
The Northmen eastern and western Frisia and burned the town 
again in Frisia ^f Dordrecht, with two other villages, before 
the eyes of Lothair, who was then in the castle of Nimwegen, 

1 By "the heathen" are meant the Norse pirates from Denmark and the 
Scandinavian peninsula. On their invasions see p. 163. 



160 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

but could not punish the crime. The Northmen, with their boats 
filled with immense booty, including both men and goods, re- 
turned to their own country. 

In the same year Louis sent an expedition from Saxony 
against the Wends across the Elbe. He personally, however, 
went with his army against the Bohemians, whom we call Beu- 
winitha, but with great risk. . . . Charles advanced against 
the Britons, but accomplished nothing. 

At this same time, as no one can mention or hear without great 

sadness, the mother of all churches, the basihca of the apostle 

^ Peter, was taken and plundered by the Moors, or 

Rome ' ^ 1 1 • r- 

attacked by Saracens, who had already occupied the region of 

the Saracens Beneventum.^ The Saracens, moreover, slaugh- 
tered all the Christians whom they found outside the walls 
of Rome, either within or without this church. They also carried 
men and women away prisoners. They tore down, among many 
others, the altar of the blessed Peter, and their crimes from day to 
day bring sorrow to Christians. Pope Sergius departed life this 
year. 

847. After the death of Sergius no mention of the apostolic 
see has come in any way to our ears. Rabanus [Maurus], master 
and abbot of Fulda,^ was solemnly chosen archbishop as the suc- 
cessor of Bishop Otger, who had died. Moreover, the Northmen 
here and there plundered the Christians and engaged in a battle 
with the counts Sigir and Liuthar. They continued up the Rhine 
as far as Dordrecht, and nine miles farther to Meginhard, when 
they turned back, having taken their booty. 

1 This Saracen attack upon Rome was made by some Arab pirates who 
in the Mediterranean were playing much the same role of destruction as 
were the Northmen on the Atlantic coasts. A league of Naples, Gaeta, and 
Amalfi defeated the pirates in 849, and delivered Rome from her oppres- 
sors long enough for new fortifications to be constructed. Walls were 
built at this time to include the quarter of St. Peter's — a district known to 
this day as the " Leonine City" in memory of Leo IV., who in 847 succeeded 
Sergius as pope [see above text under date 850]. 

2 Fulda was an important monastery on one of the upper branches of 
the Weser, northeast of Mainz. 



A NINTH CENTURY FRANKISH CHRONICLE 161 

848. On tbe fourth of February, towards evening, it lightened 
and there was thunder heard. The heathen, as was their custom. 
An outbreak inflicted injury on the Christians. In the same 
of heresy year King Louis held an assembly of the people 

I*6T)F6SS6d 

near Mainz. At this synod a heresy was brought 
forward by a few monks in regard to predestination. These 
were convicted and beaten, to their shame, before all the people. 
They were sent back to Gaul whence they had come, and, thanks 
be to God, the condition of the Church remained uninjured. 

849. While King Louis was ill, his army of Bavaria took its 
way against the Bohemians. Many of these were killed and the 
remainder withdrew, much humiliated, into their own country. 
The heathen from the North wrought havoc in Christendom 
as usual and grew greater in strength; but it is painful to say 
more of this matter. 

850. On January 1st of that season, in the octave of the Lord,^ 
towards evening, a great deal of thunder was heard and a mighty 
flash of lightning seen; and an overflow of water afflicted the 
human race during this winter. In the following summer an all 
too great heat of the sun burned the earth. Leo, pope of the 
Further rav- apostolic see, an extraordinary man, built a forti- 
Sk>rthinen \nd Acation around the church of St. Peter the apostle. 
the Saracens The Moors, however, devastated here and there 
the coast towns in Italy. The Norman Rorik, brother of the 
above-mentioned younger Heriold, who earlier had fled dis- 
honored from Lothair, again took Dordrecht and did much evil 
treacherously to the Christians. In the same year so great a 
peace existed between the two brothers — Emperor Lothair and 
King Louis — that they spent many days together in Osning 
[Westphalia] and there hunted, so that many were astonished 
thereat; and they went each his way in peace. 

851. The bodies of certain saints were sent from Rome to 

1 An octave, in the sense here meant, is the week (strictly eight days) 
following a church festival; in this case, the eight days following the anni- 
versary of Christ's birth, or Christmas. 

Med. Hist.— 11 



162 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

Saxony — that of Alexander, one of seven brethren, and those of 
Romanus and Emerentiana. In the same year the very noble 
Empress, Irmingard by name, wife of the Emperor Lothair, 
The Northm n departed this world. The Normans inflicted 
again in Frisia much harm in Frisia and about the Rhine. A 
mighty army of them collected by the River 
Elbe against the Saxons, and some of the Saxon towns were 
besieged, others burned, and most terribly did they oppress the 
Christians. A meeting of our kings took place on the Maas 
[Meuse]. 

852. The steel of the heathen glistened; excessive heat; a 
famine followed. There was not fodder enough for the animals. 
The pasturage for the swine was more than sufficient. 

853. A great famine in Saxony, so that many were forced to 
live on horse meat. 

854. The Normans, in addition to the very many evils which 
The Northmen they were everywhere inflicting upon the Chris- 
o?St*^Martin ^ ^^^^^' burned the church of St. Martin, bishop 
at Tours of Tours, where his body rests. 

855. In the spring Louis, the eastern king, sent his son of the 
same name to Aquitaine to obtain possession of the heritage of 
his uncle Pepin. 

856. The Normans again chose a king of the same name as 
the preceding one, and related to him, and the Danes made a 
fresh incursion by sea, with renewed forces, against the Christians. 

857. A great sickness prevailed among the people. This pro- 
duced a terrible foulness, so that the limbs were separated from 
the body even before death came. 

858. Louis, the eastern king, held an assembly of the people 
of his territory in Worms. 

859. On the first of January, as the early Mass was being said, 
a single earthquake occurred in Worms and a triple one in Mainz 
before daybreak. 

860. On the fifth of February thunder was heard. The king 



THE NORTHMEN IN FRANKLAND 163 

returned from Gaul after the whole empire had gone to destruc- 
tion, and was in no way bettered. 

861. The holy bishop Luitbert piously furnished the cloister 
which is called the Freckenhorst with many relics of the saints, 
Sacred relics namely, of the martyrs Boniface and Maximus, 
ffether at the ^^^ ^^ ^^® confessors Eonius and Antonius, 
Freckenhorst and added a portion of the manger of the Lord 
and of His grave, and likewise of the dust of the Lord's feet as He 
ascended to heaven. In this year the winter was long and the 
above-mentio'ned kings again had a secret consultation on the 
island near Coblenz, and they laid waste everything round 
about. 

27. The Northmen in the Country of the Franks. 

"Under the general name of Northmen in the ninth and tenth cen- 
turies were included all those peoples of pure Teutonic stock who 
inhabited the two neighboring peninsulas of Denmark and Scandinavia, 
In this period, and after, they played a very conspicuous part in the 
history of western Europe — at first as piratical invaders along the 
Atlantic coast, and subsequently as settlers in new lands and as con- 
querors and state-builders. Northmen was the name by which the 
people of the continent generally knew them, but to the Irish they 
were known as Ostmen or Eastmen, and to the English as Danes, while 
the name which they applied to themselves was Vikings [" Creekmen "]. 
Their prolonged invasions and plunderings, which fill so large a place 
in the ninth and tenth century chronicles of England and France, were 
the result of several causes and conditions: (1) their natural love of 
adventure, common to all early Germanic peoples; (2) the fact that 
the population of their home countries had become larger than the 
limited resources of these northern regions would support; (3) the 
proximity of the sea on every side, with its fiords and inlets inviting 
the adventurer to embark for new shores; and (4) the discontent of 
the nobles, or jarls, with the growing rigor of kingly government. In 
consequence of these and other influences large numbers of the people 
became pirates, with no other occupation than the plundering of the 
more civilized and wealthier countries to the east, west, and south. 



164 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

Those from Sweden visited most commonly the coasts of Russia, those 
from Norway went generally to Scotland and Ireland, and those from 
Denmark to England and France. In fast-sailing vessels carrying 
sixty or seventy men, and under the leadership of "kings of the sea" 
who never "sought refuge under a roof, nor emptied their drinking- 
horns at a fireside," they darted along the shores, ascended rivers, 
converted islands into temporary fortresses, and from thence sallied 
forth in every direction to burn and pillage and carry off all the booty 
upon which they could lay hands. So swift and irresistible were their 
operations that they frequently met with not the slightest show of 
opposition from the terrified inhabitants. 

It was natural that Frankland, with its numerous large rivers flowing 
into the ocean and leading through fertile valleys dotted with towns 
and rich abbeys, should early have attracted the marauders; and in 
fact they made their appearance there as early as the year 800. Before 
the end of Charlemagne's reign they had pillaged Frisia, and a monk- 
ish writer of the time tells us that upon one occasion the great Emperor 
burst into tears and declared that he was overwhelmed with sorrow 
as he looked forward and saw what evils they would bring upon his 
offspring and people. Whether or not this story is true, certain it is 
that before the ninth century was far advanced incursions of the 
barbarians — "the heathen," as the chroniclers generally call them — 
had come to be almost annual events. In 841 Rouen was plundered 
and burned; in 843 Nantes was besieged, the bishop killed, and many 
captives carried off; in 845 the invaders appeared at Paris and were 
prevented from attacking the place only by being bribed; and so the 
story goes, until by 846 we find the annalists beginning their melan- 
choly record of the year's events with the matter-of-course statement 
that, "according to their custom," the Northmen plundered such and 
such a region [see p. 159]. Below are a few passages taken from the 
Annals of Saint-Bertin, the poem of Abbo on the siege of Paris, and the 
Chronicle of Saint-Denys, which show something of the character of 
the Northmen's part in early French history, first as mere invaders 
and afterwards as permanent settlers. 

The Annals of Saint-Bertin are so called because they have been 
copied from an old manuscript found in the monastery of that name. 
The period which they cover is 741-882. Several wnters evidently 



THE NORTHMEN IN FRANKLAND 165 

had a hand in their compilation. The portion between tlae dates 836 
and 861 is attributed to Prudence, bishop of Troyes, and that between 
861 and 882 to Hincmar, archbishop of Ilheims. 

Abbo, tlie author of the second selection given below, was a monk 
of St. Germain des Pres, at Paris. He wrote a poem in which he under- 
took to give an account of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885 
and 886, and of the struggles of the Frankish people with the invaders 
to the year 896. As literature the poem has small value, but for the 
historian it possesses some importance. 

The account of Rollo's conversion comes from a history of the Nor- 
mans written in the twelfth century by William of Jumieges. The 
work covers the period 851-1137, its earlier portions (to 996) being 
based on an older history written by Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, in the 
eleventh century. The Chronicle of St.-Denys was composed at a 
later time and served to preserve most of the history recorded by 
Dudo and William of Jumieges. 

Sources — (a) Annates Bertiniani ['.' Annals of St. Bertin "]. Text in Monu- 
menta Germanice Historica Scriptores (Pertz ed.), Vol. I., pp. 
439-454. 

(b) Abbonis Monachi S. Germani Parisiensis, De Bellis Par- 
isiacce Urbis, et Odonis Comitis, post Regis, adversus Northman- 
nos urhem ipsam obsidentes, sub Carolo Crasso Imp. ac Rege Fran- 
corum [Abbo's "Wars of Count Odo with the Northmen in the 
Reign of Charles the Fat"]. Text in Bouquet, Recueil des His- 
toriens des Gaules et de la France, Vol. VIII., pp. 4-26. 

(c) Chronique de Saint-Denys d'apres Dudo et Ouillaume de Ju- 
mieges ["Chronicle of St. Denys based on Dudo and William 
of Jumieges"], Vol. III., p. 105. 

(a) The Earlier Ravages of the Northmen 

843. Pirates of the Northmen's race came to Nantes, killed 
the bishop and many of the clergy and laymen, both men and 
women, and pillaged the city. Thence they set out to plunder 
the lands of lower Aquitaine. At length they arrived at a certain 
island ^ and carried materials thither from the mainland to build 
themselves houses; and they settled there for the winter, as if 
that were to be their permanent dwelling-place. 

1 The isle of Rh6, near Rochelle, north of the mouth of the Garonne. 



166 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

844. The Northmen ascended the Garonne as far as Toulouse 
and pillaged the lands along both banks with impunity. Some, 
after leaving this region went into Galicia ^ and perished, i^art of 
them by the attacks of the cross-bowmen who had come to resist 
them, part by being overwhelmed by a storm at sea. But others 
of them went farther into Spain and engaged in long and desper- 
ate combats with the Saracens; defeated in the end, they with- 
drew. 

845. The Northmen with a hundred ships entered the Seine on 

the twentieth of March and, after ravaging first one bank and 

mi- %.T J.V. then the other, came without meeting any re- 

The Northmen [ ° -^ 

bought oflE at sistance to Paris. Charles ^ resolved to hold out 

Psiris 

against them; but seeing the impossibility of 

gaining a victory, he made with them a certain agreement and 
by a gift of 7,000 livres he bought them off from advancing far- 
ther and persuaded them to return. 

Euric, king of the Northmen, advanced, with six hundred 
vessels, along the course of the River Elbe to attack Louis of 
Germany.^ The Saxons prepared to meet him, gave battle, and 
with the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ won the victory. 

The Northmen returned [from Paris] down the Seine and com- 
ing to the ocean pillaged, destroyed, and burned all the regions 
along the coast. 

846. The Danish pirates landed in Frisia."^ They were able to 
force from the people whatever contributions they wished and, 
being victors in battle, they remained masters of almost the 
entire province. 

847. The Northmen made their appearance in the part of Gaul 
inhabited by the Britons ^ and won three victories. Nomenoe,^ 

1 Galicia was a province in the extreme northwest of the Spanish peninsula. 

2 Charles the Bald, who by the treaty of Verdun in 843, had obtained the 
western part of the empire built up by Charlemagne [see p. 154]. 

3 Louis, a half-brother of Charles the Bald, who had received the eastern 
portion of Charlemagne's empire by the settlement of 843. 

4 Frisia, or Friesland, was the northernmost part of the kingdom of Lothair. 

5 That is, in Brittany. 

6 Nomenoe was a native chief of the Britons. Charles the Bald made 



THE NORTHMEN IN FRANKLAND 167 

although defeated, at length succeeded in buying them off with 
presents and getting them out of his country. 

853-854. The Danish pirates, making their way into the 
country eastward from the city of Nantes, arrived without 
The burning opposition, November eighth, before Tours. This 
of Tours they burned, together with the church of St. 

Martin and the neighboring places. But that incursion had been 
foreseen with certainty and the body of St. Martin had been 
removed to Cormery, a monastery of that church, and from there 
to the city of Orleans. The pirates went on to the chateau of 
Blois ^ and burned it, proposing then to proceed to Orleans and 
destroy that city in the same fashion. But Agius, bishop of 
Orleans, and Burchard, bishop of Chartres,^ had gathered soldiers 
and ships to meet them; so they abandoned their design and re- 
turned to the lower Loire, though the following year [855] they 
ascended it anew to the city of Angers.^ 

855. They left their ships behind and undertook to go over- 
land to the city of Poitiers;^ but the Aquitanians came to meet 
them and defeated them, so that not more than 300 escaped. 

856. On the eighteenth of April, the Danish pirates came to 
the city of Orleans, pillaged it, and went away without meeting 
Orleans opposition. Other Danish pirates came into the 
pillaged Seine about the middle of August and, after 
plundering and ruining the towns on the two banks of the river, 
and even the monasteries and villages farther back, came to a 
well located place near the Seine called Jeufosse, and, there 
quietly passed the winter. 

859. The Danish pirates having made a long sea-voyage (for 

many efforts to reduce him to obedience, but with little success. In 848 
or 849 he took the title of king. During his brief reign (which ended in 851) 
he invaded Charles's dominions and wrought almost as much destruction 
as did the Northmen themselves. 

1 Tours, Blois, and Orleans were all situated within a range of a hundred 
miles along the lower Loire. 

2 Chartres was some eighty miles northwest of Orleans. 

3 About midway between Nantes and Tours. 

4 Poitiers was about seventy miles southwest of Tours, 



168 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

they had sailed between Spain and Africa) entered the Rhone, 
where they pillaged many cities and monasteries and established 
themselves on the island called Camargue. . . . They devas- 
tated everything before them as far as the city of Valence.-^ Then 
after ravaging all these regions they returned to the island where 
they had fixed their habitation. Thence they went on toward 
Italy, capturing and plundering Pisa and other cities. 

(b) The Siege of Paris 

885. The Northmen came to Paris with 700 sailing ships, not 
counting those of smaller size which are commonly called barques. 
At one stretch the Seine was lined with the vessels for more than 
two leagues, so that one might ask in astonishment in what 
cavern the river had been swallowed up, since it was not to be 
seen. The second day after the fleet of the Northmen arrived 
The Northmen ^^^^^ ^^^ walls of the city, Siegfred, who was 
arrive at the then king only in name ^ but who was in command 
of the expedition, came to the dwelling of the 
illustrious bishop. He bowed his head and said : " Gauzelin, have 
compassion on yourself and on your flock. We beseech you to 
listen to us, in order that you may escape death. Allow us only 
the freedom of the city. We will do no harm and we will see to 
it that whatever belongs either to you or to Odo shall be strictly 
respected." Count Odo, who later became king, was then the 
defender of the city.^ The bishop replied to Siegfred, "Paris has 
been entrusted to us by the Emperor Charles, who, after God, 
king and lord of the powerful, rules over almost all the world. 

1 Valence was on the Rhone, nearly a hundred and fifty miles back from 
the Mediterranean coast. 

2 The Northmen who ravaged France really had no kings, but only 
military chieftains. 

^ Odo, or Eudes, was chosen king by the Frankish nobles and clergy in 
888, to succeed the deposed Charles the Fat. He was not of the Carolingian 
family but a Robertian (son of Robert the Strong) , and hence a forerunner 
of the Capetian line of kings regularly established on the French throne in 
987 [see p. 177]. His election to tlie kingship was due in a large measure 
to his heroic conduct during the siege of Paris by the Northmen. 



THE NORTHMEN IN FRANKLAND 169 

He has put it in our care, not at all that the kingdom may be 
ruined by our misconduct, but that he may keep it and be assured 
of its peace. If, like us, you had been given the duty of defending 
these walls, and if you should have done that which you ask us to 
do, what treatment do you think you would deserve?" Siegfred 
replied: "I should deserve that my head be cut off and thrown 
to the dogs. Nevertheless, if you do not listen to my demand, 
on the morrow our war machines will destroy you with poisoned 
arrows. You will be the prey of famine and of pestilence and 
these evils will renew themselves perpetually every year." So 
saying, he departed and gathered together his comrades. 

In the morning the Northmen, boarding their ships, approached 
the tower and attacked it.^ They shook it with their engines 
The attack ^^'^ stormed it with arrows. The city resounded 

upon the tower with clamor, the people were aroused, the bridges 
trembled. All came together to defend the tower. There Odo, 
his brother Robert,^ and the Count Ragenar distinguished them- 
selves for bravery; likewise the courageous Abbot Ebolus,^ the 
nephew of the bishop. A keen arrow wounded the prelate, while 
at his side the young warrior Frederick was struck by a sword. 
Frederick died, but the old man, thanks to God, survived. There 
perished many Franks; after receiving wounds they were lavish 
of life. At last the enemy withdrew, carrying off their dead. 
The evening came. The tower had been sorely tried, but its 
foundations were still solid, as were also the narrow haies which 
surmounted them. The people spent the night repairing it with 
boards. By the next day, on the old citadel had been erected a 
new tower of wood, a half higher than the former one. At sunrise 
the Danes caught their first glimpse of it. Once more the latter 
engaged with the Christians in violent combat. On every side 
arrows sped and blood flowed. With the arrows mingled the 

1 The tower blocked access to the city by the so-called "Great Bridge," 
which connected the right bank of the Seine with the island on which the 
city was built. The tower stood on the present site of tlie Chatelet. 

2 In time Robert also became king. He reigned only from 922 to 923. 

3 Abbot Ebolus was head of the monastery of St. Germain des Pres. 



170 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

stones hurled by slings and war-machines; the air was filled with 
them. The tower which had been built during the night groaned 
Fierce under the strokes of the darts, the city shook with 

fighting i]iQ struggle, the people ran hither and thither, the 

bells jangled. The warriors rushed together to defend the totter- 
ing tower and to repel the fierce assault. Among these warriors 
two, a count and an abbot [Ebolus], surpassed all the rest in 
courage. The former was the redoubtable Odo who never ex- 
The bravery of perienced defeat and who continually revived the 
Count Odo spirits of the worn-out defenders. He ran along 

the ramparts and hurled back the enemy. On those who were 
secreting themselves so as to undermine the tower he poured oil, 
wax, and pitch, which, being mixed and heated, burned the Danes 
and tore off their scalps. Some of them died; others threw 
themselves into the river to escape the awful substance. . . .^ 

Meanwhile Paris was suffering not only from the sword outside 
but also from a pestilence within which brought death to many 
noble men. Within the walls there was not ground in which to 
bury the dead. . . . Odo, the future king, was sent to Charles, 
emperor of the Franks,^ to implore help for the stricken city. 

One day Odo suddenly appeared in splendor in the midst of 
three bands of warriors. The sun made his armor glisten and 
Odo's mission greeted him before it illuminated the country 
Ohar^'sYhe around. The Parisians saw their beloved chief 
Fat at a distance, but the enemy, hoping to prevent 

his gaining entrance to the tower, crossed the Seine and took up 
their position on the bank. Nevertheless Odo, his horse at a 
gallop, got past the Northmen and reached the tower, whose 
gates Ebolus opened to him. The enemy pursued fiercely the 

1 The Northmen were finally compelled to abandon their efforts against 
the tower. They then retired to the bank of the Seine near the abbey of 
Saint-Denys and from that place as a center ravaged all the country lying 
about Paris. In a short time they renewed the attack upon the city itself. 

2 Charles the Fat, under whom dining the years 885-887 the old empire 
of Charlemagne was for the last time united under a single sovereign. When 
<Jdo went to find him in 886 he was at Metz in Germany. German and 
Italian affairs interested him more than did those of the Franks. 



THK NORTHMEN IN FRANKLAND l71 

comrades of the count who were trying to keep up with him 
and get refuge in the tower. [The Danes were defeated in the 
attack.] 

Now came the Emperor Charles, surrounded by soldiers of all 
nations, even as the sky is adorned with resplendent stars. A 
„ „ great throng, speaking many languages, accom- 

XGrmS 01 p6£lC6 

arranged by panied him. He established his camp at the foot 
of the heights of Montmartre, near the tower. 
He allowed the Northmen to have the country of Sens to plun- 
der; ^ and in the spring he gave them WO pounds of silver on con- 
dition that by the month of March they leave France for their 
own kingdom.^ Then Charles returned, destined to an early 
death. ^ 

(c) The Baptism of Rollo and the Establishment op the 
Normans in France ^ 

The king had at first wished to give to Rollo the province of 
Flanders, but the Norman rejected it as being too marshy. Rollo 

1 Sens was about a hundred miles southeast of Paris. Charles abandoned 
the region about Sens to the Northmen to plunder during the winter of 
886-887. His very lame excuse for doing this was that the people of the 
district did not properly recognize his authority and were deserving of such 
punishment. 

2 The twelve month siege of Paris thus brought to an end had many note- 
worthy results. Chief among these was the increased prestige of Odo as a 
national leader and of Paris as a national stronghold. Prior to this time 
Paris had not been a place of importance, even though Clovis had made it 
his capital. ' In the period of Charlemagne it was distinctly a minor city 
and it gained little in prominence under Louis the Pious and Charles the 
Bald. The great Carolingian capitals were Laon and Compiegne. The 
siege of 885-886, however, made it apparent that Paris occupied a strategic 
position, commanding the valley of the Seine, and that the inland city was 
one of the true bulwarks of the kingdom. Thereafter the place grew rapidly 
in population and prestige, and when Odo became king (in 888) it was made 
his capital. As time went on it grew to be the heart of the French king- 
dom and came to guide the destinies of France as no other city of modern 
times has guided a nation. 

3 He was deposed in 887, largely because of his utter failure to take any 
active measures to defend the Franks against their Danish enemies. From 
Paris he went to Germany where he died, January 13, 888, at a small town 
on the Danube. 

4 After the famous siege of Paris in 885-886 the Northmen, or Normans 
as they may now be called, continued to ravage France just as they had 



172 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

refused to kiss the foot of Charles when he received from him the 

duchy of Normandy. "He who receives such a gift," said the 

bishops to him, "ought to kiss the foot of the king." "Never," 

replied he, "will I bend the knee to any one, or kiss anybody's 

foot." Nevertheless, impelled by the entreaties of the Franks, 

he ordered one of his warriors to perform the act in his stead. 

This man seized the foot of the king and lifted it to his lips, 

kissing it without bending and so causing the king to tumble 

over backwards. At that there was a loud burst of laughter 

and a great commotion in 1?he crowd of onlookers. , King Charles, 

RoUo receives Robert, Duke of the Franks,^ the counts and 

from cSaSes magnates, and the bishops and abbots, bound 

the Simple themselves by the oath of the Catholic faith to 

Rollo, swearing by their lives and their bodies and by the honor 

of all the kingdom, that he might hold the land and transmit it to 

his heirs from generation to generation throughout all time to 

come. When these things had been satisfactorily performed, 

the king returned in good spirits into his dominion, and Rollo 

with Duke Robert set out for Rouen. 

In the year of our Lord 912 Rollo was baptized in holy water 

in the name of the sacred Trinity by Franco, archbishop of 

Rollo becomes Rouen. Duke Robert, who was his godfather, 

a Christian gave to him his name. Rollo devotedly honored 

God and the Holy Church with his gifts. . . . The pagans, 

done before that event. In 910 one of their greatest chieftains, Rollo, ap- 
peared before Paris and prepared to take the city. In this project he was 
unsuccessful, but his warrirrs caused so much devastation in the surrounding 
country that Charles the Simple, who was now king, decided to try negotia- 
tions. A meeting was held at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte where, in the presence 
of the Norman warriors and the Prankish magnates, Charles and Rollo 
entered into the first treaty looking toward a permanent settlement of North- 
men on Frankish territory. Rollo promised to desist from his attacks upon 
Frankland and to become a Christian. Charles agreed to give over to the 
Normans a region which they in fact already held, with Rouen as its center, 
and extending from the Epte River on the east to the sea on the west. The 
arrangement was dictated by good sense and proved a fortunate one for 
all parties concerned. 

1 Robert was Odo's brother. "Duke of the Franks" was a title, at first 
purely military, but fast developing to the point where it was to culminate 
in its bearer becoming the first Capetian king [see p. 177]. 



CAROLINGIAN EFFORTS TO PRESERVE ORDER 173 

seeing that their chieftain had become a Christian, abandoned 
their idols, received the name of Christ, and with one accord 
desired to be baptized. Meanwhile the Norman duke made 
ready for a splendid wedding and married the daughter of the 
king [Gisela] according to Christian rites. 

Rollo gave assurance of security to all those who wished to 
dwell in his country. The land he divided among his followers, 
and, as it had been a long time unused, he improved it by the 
construction of new buildings. It was peopled by the Norman 
warriors and by immigrants from outside regions. The duke 
His work established for his subjects certain inviolable 

in Normandy rights and laws, confirmed and published by the 
will of the leading men, and he compelled all his people to live 
peaceably together. He rebuilt the churches, which had been 
entirely ruined; he restored the temples, which had been de- 
stroyed by the ravages of the pagans; he repaired and added to 
the walls and fortifications of the cities; he subdued the Britons 
who rebelled against him; and with the provisions obtained 
from them he supplied all the country that had been granted 
to him. 

28. Later Carolingian Efforts to Preserve Order 

The ninth century is chiefly significant in Frankish history as an 
era of decline of monarchy and increase of the powers and independence 
of local officials and magnates. Already by Charlemagne's death, in 
814, the disruptive forces were at work, and under the relatively weak 
successors of the great Emperor the course of decentralization went 
on mitil by the death of Charles the Bald, in 877, the royal authority 
had been reduced to a condition of insignificance. This century was 
the formative period -par excellence of the feudal system — a type of 
social and economic organization which the conditions of the time 
rendered inevitable and under which great monarchies tended to be 
dissolved into a multitude of petty local states. Large landholders be- 
gan to regard themselves as practically independent; royal officials, par- 
ticularly the counts, refused to be parted from their positions and used 



174 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

them primarily to enhance their own personal authority; the churches 
and monasteries stretched their royal grants of immunity so far as 
almost to refuse to acknowledge any obligations to the central govern- 
ment. In these and other ways the Carolingian monarchy was shorn 
of its powers, and as it was quite lacking in money, lands, and soldiers 
who could be depended on, there was little left for it to do but to legis- 
late and ordain without much prospect of being able to enforce its 
laws and ordinances. The rapidity with which the kings of the period 
were losing their grip on the situation comes out very clearly from a study 
of the capitularies which they issued from time to time. In general 
these capitularies, especially after about 840, testify to the disorder 
everywhere prevailing, the usurpations of the royal officials, and the 
popular contempt of the royal authority, and reiterate commands 
for the preservation of order until they become fairly wearisome to 
the reader. Royalty was at a bad pass and its weakness is reflected 
unmistakably in its attempts to govern by mere edict without an}- back- 
ing of enforcing power. In 843, 853, 856, 857, and many other years 
of Charles the Bald's reign, elaborate decrees were issued prohibiting 
brigandage and lawlessness, bul with the tell-tale provision that vio- 
lators were to be "admonished with Christian love to repent," or that 
they were to be punished "as far as the local officials could remember 
them," or that the royal agents were themselves to take oath not to 
become highway robbers! Sometimes the kiiag openly confessed his 
weakness and proceeded to implore, rather than to command, his sub- 
jects to obey him. 

The capitulary quoted below belongs to the last year of the short 
reign of Carloman (882-884) , son of Louis the Stammerer and grandson 
of Charles the Bald. It makes a considerable show of power, ordain- 
ing the punishment of criminals as confidently as if there had really 
been means to assure its enforcement. But in truth all the provisions 
in it had been embodied in capitularies of Carloman 's predecessors with 
scarcely perceptible effect, and there was certainly no reason to expect 
better results now. With the nobles practicing, if not asserting, in- 
dependence, the churches and monasteries heeding the royal authority 
hardly at all, the country being ravaged by Northmen and the people 
turning to the great magnates for the protection they could no longer 
get from the king, and the counts and missi dominici making 



CAROLING! AN EFFORTS TO PRESERVE ORDER 175 

their lands and offices the basis for hereditary local authority, the 
king had come to be almost jDowerless in the great realm where less 
than a hundred years before Charlemagne's word, for all practical 
purposes, was law. Even Charlemagne himself, however, could have 
done little to avert the state of anarchy which conditions too strong 
for any sovereign to cope with had brought about. 

Source — ^Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Boretius ed.), 
Vol. II., pp. 371-375. 

1. According to the custom of our predecessors, we desire 
that in our palace shall prevail the worship of God, the honor of 
Th k i e- of ^^^ ^^^&j piety, concord, and a condition of peace; 
the peace en- and that that peace established in our palace * 

by the sanction of our predecessors shall extend 
to, and be observed throughout, our entire kingdom. 

2. We desire that all those who live at our court, and all who 
come there, shall live peaceably. If any one, in breach of the 
peace, is guilty of violence, let him be brought to a hearing at 
our palace, by the authority of the king and by the order of our 
missus, as it was ordained by the capitularies of our predecessors, 
that he may be punished according to a legal judgment and may 
pay a triple composition with the royal ban.^ 

3. If the offender has no lord, or if he flees from our court, 
our missus shall go to find him and shall order him, in our name, 
to appear at the palace.' If he should be so rash as to disdain to 
come, let him be brought by force. If he spurns both us and our 
missus, and while refusing to obey summons is killed in resisting, 
and any of his relatives or friends undertake to exercise against 
our agents who have killed him the right of vengeance,^ we will 
oppose them there and will give our agents all the aid of our royal 
authority. 

5. The bishop of the diocese in which the crime shall have 

1 See p. 138, note 4. 

2 If the offender had a lord, this lord would be expected to produce his 
accused vassal at court. 

3 That is, the old blood-feud of the Germans. 



176 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

been committed ought, through the priest of the place, to give 
three successive invitations to the offender to repent and to- 
Th b'sh 's ms-ke reparation for his fault in order to set 
part in re- _ himself right with God and the church that he 
has injured. If he scorns and rejects this sum- 
mons and invitation, let the bishop wield upon him the pastoral 
rod, that is to say, the sentence of excommunication; and let 
him separate him from the communion of the Holy Church until 
he shall have given the satisfaction that is required. 

9. In order that violence be entirely brought to an end and 
order restored, it is necessary that the bishop's authority should 
Obligations of be supplemented by that of the public officials. 
to^restrain^ Therefore we and our faithful have judged it 

violence expedient that the missi dominici should discharge 

faithfully the duties of their office.^ The count shall enjoin to 
the viscount,^ to his vicarii and centenarii,^ and to all the public 
officials, as well as to all Franks who have a knowledge of the 
law, that all should give as much aid as they can to the Church, 
both on their own account and in accord with the requests of 
the clergy, every time they shall be called upon by the bishop, the 
officers of the bishop, or even by the needy. They should do this 
for the love of God, the peace of the Holy Church, and the fidelity 
that they owe to us. 

1 The office of missus had by this time fallen pretty much into decay. 
Many of the missi were at the same time counts — a combination of authority 
directly opposed to the earlier theory of the administrative system. The 
missus had been supposed to supervise the counts and restrain them from 
disloyalty to the king and from indulgence in arbitrary or oppressive meas- 
ures of local government. 

2 The viscount (vicecomes) Avas the count's deputy. By Carloman's time 
there were sometimes several of these in a county. They were at first 
appointed by the count, but toward the end of the ninth century they be- 
came hereditary. 

^ The vicarii and centenarii were local assistants of the count in adminis- 
trative and judicial affairs. In Merovingian times their precise duties are 
not clear, but under the Carolingians the two terms tended to become 
synonyms. The centenarius, or hundredman, was charged mainly with 
the administration of justice in the smallest local division, i. e.,the hundred. 
In theory he was elected by the people of the hundred, but in practice he 
was usually appointed by the count. 



THE ELECTION OF HUGH CAPET 177 

29. The Election of Hugh Capet (987) 

The election of Hugh Capet as king of France in 987 marked the 
establishment of the so-called Capetian line of monarchs, which oc- 
cupied the French throne in all not far from eight centuries — a record 
not equaled by any other royal house in European history. The cir- 
cumstances of the election were interesting and significant. For more 
than a hundred years there had been keen rivalry between the Carolin- 
gian kings and one of the great ducal houses of the Franks, known as 
the Robertians, In fhe disorder which so generally prevailed in France 
in the ninth and tenth centuries, powerful families possessing extensive 
lands and having large numbers of vassals and serfs were able to make 
themselves practically independent of the royal power. The greatest of 
these families was the Robertians, the descendants of Robert the Strong, 
father of the Odo who distinguished himself at the siege of Paris in 
885-886 [see p. 170]. Between 888 and 987 circumstances brought it 
about three different times that members of the Robertian house were 
elevated to the Frankish throne (Odo, 888-898; Robert I., 922-923; 
and Rudolph — related to the Robertians by marriage only,— 923-936). 
The rest of the time the throne was occupied by Carolingians (Charles 
the Simple, 898-922; Louis IV., 936-954; Lothair, 954-986; and Louis V., 
986-987). With the death of the young king Louis V., in 987, the 
last direct descendant of Charlemagne passed away and the question 
of the succession was left for solution by the nobles and higher 
clergy of the realm. As soon as the king was dead, such of these mag- 
nates as were assembled at the court to attend the funeral bound 
themselves by oath to take no action until a general meeting could 
be held at Senlis (a few miles north of Paris) late in May, 987. The 
proceedings of this general meeting are related in the passage below. 
Apparently it had already been pretty generally agreed that the man 
to be elected was Hugh Capet, great-grandson of Robert the Strong 
and the present head of the famous Robertian house, and the speech 
of Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, of which Richer gives a resume, 
was enough to ensure this result. There was but one other claimant of 
importance. That was the late king's uncle, Charles of Lower Lorraine. 
He was not a man of force and Adalbero easily disposed of his candidacy, 
though the rejected prince was subsequently able to make his successful 
rival a good deal of trouble. Hugh owed his election to his large ma- 

Med. Hist.— 12 



178 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

terial resources, the military prestige of his ancestors, the active support 
of the Church, and the lack of direct heirs of the Carolingian dynasty. 
Richer, the chronicler whose account of the election is given below, 
was a monk living at Rheims at the time when the events occurred 
which he describes. His " Four Books of Histories," discovered only in 
1833, is almost our only considerable source of information on Frankish 
affairs in the later tenth century. In his writing he endeavored to round 
out his work into a real history and to give more than the bare outline 
of events characteristic of the mediaeval annalists. In this he was 
only partially successful, being at fault mainly in indulging in too much 
rhetoric and in allowing partisan motives sometimes to guide him in what 
he said. His partisanship was on the side of the fallen Carolingians. The 
period covered by the " Histories " is 888-995 ; they are therefore roughly 
continuous chronologically with the Annals of Saint Bertin [see p. 164], 

Source — Richer, Historiarum hihri IV. [" Four Books of Histories ' '] , Bk. IV. , 
Chaps. 11-12. Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scrip- 
tores (Pertz ed.). Vol. III., pp. 633-634. 

Meanwhile, at the appointed time the magnates of Gaul who 
had taken the oath came together at Senlis. When they had all 
taken their places in the assembly and the duke ^ had given the 
sign, the archbishop^ spoke to them as follows:^ 

"King Louis, of divine memory, having been removed from 
the world, and having left no heirs, it devolves upon us to take 
Adalbero's serious counsel as to the choice of a successor, so 

speech at that the state may not suffer any injury through 

neglect and the lack of a leader. On a former 
occasion^ we thought it advisable to postpone that deliberation 
in order that each of you might be able to come here and, in the 
presence of the assembly, voice the sentiment which God should 
have inspired in you, and that from all these different expressions 
of opinion we might be able to find out what is the general will. 

1 Hugh Capet, whose title prior to 987 was "Duke of the Franks." 

2 Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims. 

3 We are not to suppose that Richer here gives a literal reproduction of 
Adalbero's speech, but so far as we can tell the main points are carefully 
stated. 

4 At the fimeral of Louis. 



THE ELECTION OF HUGH CAPET 179 

"Here we are assembled. Let us see to it, by our prudence 
and honor, that hatred shall not destroy reason, that love shall 
Election not ^^^ interfere with truth. We are aware that 

heredity, the Charles ^ has his partisans, who claim that the 

true basis of . . 

Prankish king- throne belongs to him by right of birth. But if 

'' ^P we look into the matter, the throne is not ac- 

quired by hereditary right, and no one ought to be placed at the 
head of the kingdom unless he is distinguished, not only by nobil- 
ity of body, but also by strength of mind — only such a one as 
honor and generosity recommend.^ We read in the annals of 
rulers of illustrious descent who were deposed on account of 
their unworthiness and replaced by others of the same, or even 
lesser, rank.^ 

"What dignity shall we gain by making Charles king? He is 
not guided by honor, nor is he possessed of strength. Then, too, 
he has compromised himself so far as to have become the depend- 
ent of a foreign king^ and to have married a girl taken from 
among his own vassals. How could the great duke endure that 
a woman of the low rank of vassal should become queen and 
Obiections ^^^® ^^^^ him? How could he tender services 

to Charles to this woman, when his equals, and even his 

superiors, in birth bend the knee before him and 
place their hands under his feet? Think of this seriously and 
you will see that Charles must be rejected for his own faults 

1 Charles of Lower Lorraine, uncle of Louis V. 

2 The elective principle here asserted had prevailed in the choice of French 
and German kings for nearly a century. The kings chosen, however, usually 
came from one family, as the Carolingians in France. 

3 Almost exactly a century earlier there had been such a case among the 
Franks, when Charles the Fat was deposed and Odo, the defender of Paris, 
elevated to the throne (888). 

■4 Charles had been made duke of Lower Lorraine by the German emperor. 
This passage in Adalbero's speech looks like something of an appeal to 
Frankish pride, or as we would say in these days, to national sentiment. 
Still it must be remeinbered that while a sense of common interest was un- 
doubtedly beginning to develop among the peoples represented in the as- 
sembly at Senlis, these peoples were still far too diverse to be spoken of 
accurately as making up a unified nationality. Adalbero was indulging in 
a political harangue and piling up arguments for effect, without much re- 
gard for their real weight. 



180 THE ERA OF THE LATER CAROLINGIANS 

rather than on account of any wrong done by others. Make a 

decision, therefore, for the welfare rather than for the injury of 

the state.. If you wish ill to your country, choose Charles to be 

king; if you have regard for its prosperity, choose Hugh, the 

illustrious duke. ... Elect, then, the duke, a man who is 

„, ^. „ recommended by his conduct, by his nobility, 

Election of "" t i • 

Hugh Capet and by his military followmg. In him you will 

urged g^^ ^ defender, not only of the state, but also of 

your private interests. His large-heartedness will make him a 
father to you all. Who has ever fled to him for protection with- 
out receiving it? Who that has been deserted by his friends has 
he ever failed to restore to his rights?" 

This speech was applauded and concurred in by all, and by 
unanimous consent the duke was raised to the throne. He was 
The beginning crowned at Noyon ^ on the first of June ^ by the 
of his reign archbishop and the other bishops as king of the 
Gauls, the Bretons, the Normans, the Aquitanians, the Goths, 
the Spaniards and the Gascons.^ Surrounded by the nobles of 
the king, he issued decrees and made laws according to royal 
custom, judging and disposing of all matters with success. 

1 Noyon was a church center about fifty miles north of Paris. That the 
coronation really occurred at this place has been questioned by some, but 
there seems to be small reason for doubting Richer's statement in the matter. 

2 M. Pfister in Lavisse, Histoire de France, Vol. II., p. 412, asserts that the 
coronation occurred July 3, 987. 

3 This method of describing the extent of the new king's dominion shows 
how far from consolidated the so-called Frankish kingdom really was. The 
royal domain proper, that is, the land over which the king had immediate 
control, was limited to a long fertile strip extending from the Somme to a 
point south of Orleans, including the important to'WTis of Paris, Orleans, 
Etampes, Senlis, and Compiegne. Even this was not continuous, but was 
cut into here and there by the estates of practically independent feudal 
lords. By far the greater portion of modern France (the name in 987 was 
only beginning to be applied to the whole country) consisted of great coun- 
ties and duchies, owing comparatively little allegiance to the king and usually 
rendering even less than they owed. Of these the most important was the 
county (later duchy) of Normandy, the county of Bretagne (Brittany), 
the county of Flanders, the county of Anjou, the county of Blois, the duchy 
of Burgundy, the duchy of Aquitaine, the county of Toulouse, the county of 
Gascony , and the county of Barcelona (south of the Pyrenees) . The " Goths ' ' 
referred to by Richer were the inhabitants of the "march," or border 
county, of Gothia along the Mediterranean coast between the lower Rhone 
and the Pyrenees (old Septimania). 



CHAPTER XI. 
ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND ]N PEACE 
30. The Danes in England 

The earliest recorded visit of the Danes, or Northmen, to England 
somewhat antedates the appearance of these peoples on the Frankish 
coast in the year 800. In 787 three Danish vessels came to shore at 
Warham in Dorset and their sailors slew the unfortunate reeve who 
mistook them for ordinary foreign merchants and tried to collect 
port dues from them. Thereafter the British coasts were never free 
for many years at a time from the depredations of the marauders. 
In 793 the famous church at Lindisfarne, in Noi'thumberland, was 
plundered; in 795 the Irish coasts began to suffer; in 833 a fleet of 
twenty-five vessels appeared at the mouth of the Thames ; in 834 twelve 
hundred pillagers landed in Dorset; in 842 London and Rochester 
were sacked and their population scattered; in 850 a fleet of 350 ships 
carrying perhaps ten or twelve thousand men, wintered at the mouth 
of the Thames and in the spring caused London again to suffer; and 
from then on until the accession of King Alfred, in 871, destructive 
raids followed one another with distressing frequency. 

The account of the Danish invasions given below is taken from 
a biography of King Alfred commonly attributed to Asser, a monk of 
Welsh origin connected with the monastery of St. David (later bishop 
of Sherborne) and a close friend and adviser of the great king. It gives 
us some idea of the way in which Alfred led his people through the 
darkest days in their history, and of the settlement known as the 
"Peace of Alfred and Guthrum" by which the Danish leadei became 
a Christian and the way was prepared for the later division of the Eng- 
hsh country between the two contending peoples. 

181 



182 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

Source — ^Johannes Menevensis Asserius, De rebus gestis /Elfredi Magni 
[Asser, "The Deeds of Alfred the Great"], Chaps. 42-55 passim. 
Adapted from translation by J. A. Giles in Six Old English 
Chronicles (London, 1866), pp. 56-63. 

In the year 871 Alfred, who up to that time had been of only 
secondary rank, while his brothers were alive, by God's permis- 
sion, undertook the government of the whole kingdom, welcomed 
by all the people. Indeed, if he had cared to, he might have done 
so earlier, even while his brother was still alive; ^ for in wisdom 
Alf d b ^^^^ other qualities he excelled all of his brothers, 

comes king and, moreover, he was courageous and victorious 
(871') . . 

in all his wars. He became king almost against 

his will, for he did not think that he could alone withstand the 

numbers and the fierceness of the pagans, though even during 

the lifetime of his brothers he had carried burdens enough for 

many men. And when he had ruled one month, with a small 

band of followers and on very unequal terms, he fought a battle 

with the entire army of the pagans. This was at a hill called 

Wilton, on the south bank of the River Wily, from which river 

the whole of that district is named. ^ And after a long and fierce 

engagement the pagans, seeing the danger they were in, and 

no longer able to meet the attacks of their enemies, turned their 

backs and fled. But, oh, shame to say, they deceived the English, 

who pursued them too boldly, and, turning swiftly about, gained 

the victory. Let no one be surprised to learn that the Christians 

had only a small number of men, for the Saxons had been 

worn out by eight battles with the pagans in one year. In 

these they had slain one king, nine dukes, and innumerable 

troops of soldiers. There had also been numberless skirmishes. 

The strui?gle both by day and by night, in which Alfred, with 

with the Danes j^jg ministers and chieftains and their men, were 

engaged without rest or relief against the pagans. How many 

thousands of pagans fell in these skirmishes God only knows, 

iThat is, Ethelred I., whom Alfred succeeded. 

2 Wiltshire, on the southern coast, west of the Isle of Wight. ' 



THE DANES IN ENGLAND 183 

over and above the numbers slain in the eight battles before men- 
tioned. In the same year the Saxons made peace with the in- 
vaders, on condition that they should take their departure, and 
they did so. 

In the year 877 the pagans, on the approach of autumn, 
partly settled in Exeter^ and partly marched for plunder into 
Mercia.^ The number of that disorderly horde increased every 
day, so that, if thirty thousand of them were slain in one battle, 
others took their places to double the number. Then King Alfred 
commanded boats and galleys, i. e., long ships, to be built 
throughout the kingdom, in order to offer battle by sea to 
the enemy as they were coming.^ On board these he placed 
Alfred's plan sailors, whom he commanded to keep watch on 
plffans on the *^® ®^^^* Meanwhile he went himself to Exe- 
sea ter, where the pagans were wintering and, having 

shut them up within the walls, laid siege to the town. He also 
gave orders to his sailors to prevent the enemy from obtaining 
any supplies by sea. In a short time the sailors were encountered 
by a fleet of a hundred and twenty ships full of armed soldiers, 
who were on their way to the relief of their countrymen. As soon 
as the king's men knew that the ships were manned by pagan 
soldiers they leaped to their arms and bravely attacked those 
barbaric tribes. The pagans, who had now for almost a month 
been tossed and almost wrecked among the waves of the sea, 
fought vainly against them. Their bands were thrown into 
confusion in a very short time, and all were sunk and drowned 
in the sea, at a place called Swanwich.* 

1 The same as the modern city of the name. 

2 Mercia was one of the seven old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It lay earst of 
Wales. 

3 This marked a radical departure in methods of fighting the invaders. 
On the continent, and hitherto in England, there had been no effort to pre- 
vent the enemy from getting into the country they proposed to plunder. 
Alfred's creation of a navy was one of his wisest acts. Although the Eng- 
lish had by this time grown comparatively unaccustomed to seafaring life 
they contrived to win their first naval encounter with the enemy. 

■* In Dorsetshire. 



184 ALFRED THE GREAT IN "WAR AND IN PEACE 

In 878, which was the thirtieth year of King Alfred's life, the 
pagan army left Exeter and went to Chippenham. This latter 
place was a royal residence situated in the west of Wiltshire, on 
the eastern bank of the river which the Britons called the Avon. 
They spent the winter there and drove many of the inhabitants 
of the surrounding country beyond the sea by the force of their 
arms, and by the want of the necessities of life. They reduced 
almost entirely to subjection all the people of that- country. 

The same year, after Easter, King Alfred, with a few followers, 
made for himself a stronghold in a place called Athelney/ and 
Alfred in from thence sallied, with his companions and the 

refuge at nobles of Somersetshire, to make frequent assaults 

upon the pagans. Also, in the seventh week 
after Easter, he rode to Egbert's stone, which is in the eastern 
part of the wood that is called Selwood.^ Here he was met 
by all the folk of Somersetshire and Wiltshire and Hampshire, 
who had not fled beyond the sea for fear of the pagans; and 
when they saw the king alive after such great tribulation they 
received him, as he deserved, with shouts of joy, and encamped 
there for one night. At dawn on the following day the king broke 
camp and went to Okely, where he encamped for one night. 
The next morning he moved to Ethandune ^ and there fought 
bravely and persistently against the whole army of the pagans. 
The battle of ■'^y ^^^ ^^^P. ^f God he defeated them with great 
Ethandune and slaughter and pursued them flying to their forti- 

uX16 6Sl3jD11Si1~ 

ment of peace fication. He at once slew all the men and carried 
^ ' off all the booty that he could find outside the 

fortress, which he immediately laid siege to with his entire army. 
And when he had been there fourteen days the pagans, driven 

1 Athelney was in Somersetshire, northeast of Exeter, in the marshes at 
the jmiction of the Tone and the Parret. 

2 The modern Brixton Deverill, in Wiltshire, near Warminster. 

3 In Wiltshire, a little east of Westbury. In January the Danes had 
removed from Exeter to Chippenham. Edington (or Ethandune) was eight 
miles from the camp at the latter place. The Danes were first defeated in 
an open battle at Edington, and then forced to surrender after a fourteen 
days' siege at Chippenham. 



Alfred's interest in education 185 

by famine, cold, fear, and finally by despair, asked for peace on 
the condition that they should give the king as many hostages 
as he should ask, but should receive none from him in return. 
Never before had they made a treaty with any one on such terms. 
The king, hearing this, took pity upon them and received such 
hostages as he chose. ' Then the pagans swore that they would 
immediately leave the kingdom, and their king, Guthrum, 
promised to embrace Christianity and receive baptism at Alfred's 
hands. All of these pledges he and his men fulfilled as they had 
promised.^ . 

31. Alfred's Interest in Education 

As an epoch of literary and educational advancement the reign of 
Alfred in England (871-901) was in many respects like that of Charle- 
magne among the Franks (768-814). Like Charlemagne, Alfred grew 
up with very slight education, at least of a literary sort ; but both sov- 
ereigns were strongly dissatisfied with their ignorance, and both made 
earnest efforts to overcome their own defects and at the same time 
to raise the standard of intelligence among their people at large. When 
one considers how crowded were the reigns of both with wars and the 
pressing business of administration, such devotion to the interests of 
learning appears the more deserving of praise. 

In the first passage below, taken from Asser's life of Alfred, the 

anxiety of the king for the promotion of his own education and that 

of his children is clearly and strongly stated. We find him following 

Charlemagne's plan of bringing scholars from foreign countries. He 

brought them, too, from parts of Britain not under his direct control, 

and used them at the court, or in bishoprics, to perform the work of 

instruction. Curiously enough, whereas Charlemagne had found the 

chief of his Palace School, Alcuin, in England, Alfred was glad to 

secure the services of two men (Grimbald and John) who had made 

1 This so-called "Peace of Alfred and Guthrum" in 878 provided only for 
the acceptance of Christianity by the Danish leader. It is sometimes 
known as the treaty of Chippenham and is not to be confused with the treaty 
of Wedmore, of a few weeks later, by which Alfred and Gutlirum divided 
the English country between them. The text of this second treaty will be 
found in Lee's Source-Book of English History (pp. 98-99), though the in- 
troductory statement there given is somewhat misleading. This assignment 
of the Danelaw to Guthrum 's people may well be compared with the yielding 
of Normandy to RoUo by Charles the Simple in 911 [see p. 172]. 



186 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

their reputations in monasteries situated within the bounds of the old 
Frankish empire. 

Aside -from some native songs and epic poems, all the literature 
known to the Saxon, people was in Latin, and but few persons in the 
kingdom knew Latin well enough to read it. The king himself did not, 
until about 887. It was supposed, of course, that the clergy were 
able to use the Latin Kible and the Latin ritual of the Church, but 
when Alfred came to investigate he found that even these men were 
often pretty ^nearly as ignorant as the people they were charged to 
instruct. What the king did, then, was to urge more study on the part 
of the clergy, under the direction of such men as Plegmund, Asser, Grim- 
bald, John, and Werfrith. The people in general could not be ex- 
pected to master a foreign language; hence, in order that they might 
not be shut off entirely from the first-hand use of books, Alfred under- 
took the translation of certain standard works from the Latin into the 
Saxon. Those thus translated were Boethius's Consolations of Philoso- 
phy, Orosius's Universal History of the World, Bede's Ecclesiastical 
Histbcy of England, and Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule. The 
second passage given below is Alfred's preface to his Saxon edition of 
the last-named book, taking the form of a letter to the scholarly 
Bishop Werfrith of Worcester. The Pastoral Rule [see p. 90] was 
written by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) as a body of instruc- 
tions in doctrine and conduct for the clergy. Alfred's preface, as a 
picture of the ruin wrought by the long series of Danish wars, is of 
the utmost importance in the stuAy of ninth and tenth century Eng- 
land, as well as a most interesting rev-elation of the character of ths 
great king. 

Sources — (a) Asser, De rebus gestis J^lfredi Magni, Chaps. 75-78. Adapted 
from translation by J. A. Giles in Six Old English Chronicles 
(London, 1866), pp. 68-70. 
(b) King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Pope Gregory's Pas- 
toral Rule. Edited by Henry Sweet in the Publications of the 
Early English Text Society (London, 1871), p. 2. 

(a) 

Ethelwerd, the youngest [of Alfred's children],^ by the divine 
counsels and the admirable prudence of the king, was consigned 
1 Ethelwerd was Alfred's fifth living child. 



Alfred's interest in education 187' 

to the schools of learning, where, with the children of almost all 
the nobility of the country, and many also who were not noble, 
he prospered under the diligent care of his teachers. Books in 
both languages, namely, Latin and Saxon,- were read in the school.^ 
Th d f '^^^^y ^^^*^ learned to write, so that before they 
of Alfred's were of an age to practice nianly arts, namely, 

hunting and such pursuits as befit noblemen, 
they became studious and clever in the liberal arts. Edward ' 
and ^Ifthryth ^ were reared in the king's court and._ received 
great attention from their attendants and nurses; nay, they con- 
tinue to this day with the love of all about them, and showing 
friendliness, and even gentleness, towards all, both natives and 
foreigners, and in complete subjection to their father. Nor, 
among their other studies which pertain to this life and are fit 
for noble youths, are they suffered to pass their time idly and 
unprofitably without learning the liberal arts; for they have 
carefully learned the Psalms and Saxon bociks, especially the 
Saxon poems, and are continually in the habit of making use of 
bxjoks. 

In the meantime the king, during the frequent wars and other 
hindrances of this present life, the invasions of the pagans, and 
Th * ar' d ac ^^^ ^^^ infirmities of body, continued to carry 
tivities of the on the government, and to practice hunting in 

all its branches; to teach his workers in gold and 
artificers of all kinds, his falconers, hawkers and dog-keepers; to 
build houses, majestic and splendid, beyond all the precedents of 
his ancestors, by his new mechanical inventions; to recite the 
Saxon books, and especially to learn by heart the Saxon poems, 

1 This was, of course, not a school in the modern sense of the word. All 
that is meant is simply that young Ethelwerd, along with sons of nobles 
and non-nobles, received instruction from the learned men at the court. 
It had been customary before Alfred's day for the young princes and sons 
of nobles to receive training at the court, but not in letters. 

2 This was Edward the Elder who succeeded Alfred as king and reigned 
from 901 to 925. He was Alfred's eldest son. 

3 ^Ift^iyth was Alfred's fourth child. She became the wife of Baldwin II. 
of Flanders. 



188 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

and to make others learn them.^ And he alone never desisted 
from studying most diligently to the best of his ability. He at- 
tended the Mass and other daily services of religion. He was 
His devout diligent in psalm-singing and prayer, at the hours 
character both of the day and of the night. He also went 

to the churches, as we have already said, in the night-time to 
pray, secretly and unknown to his courtiers. He bestowed alms 
and gifts on both natives and foreigners of all countries. He was 
affable and pleasant to all, and curiously eager to investigate 
things unknown. Many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, pagans, Britons, 
Scots, and Armoricans,^ noble and low-born, came voluntarily 
to his domain; and all of them, according to their nation and 
deserving, were ruled, loved, honored and enriched with money 
and power.^ Moreover, the king was in the habit of hearing the 
divine Scriptures read by his own countrymen, or, if by any 
chance it so happened, in company with foreigners, and he at- 
tended to it with care and solicitude. His bishops, too, and all 
ecclesiastics, his earls and nobles, •ministers^ and friends, were 
loved by him with wonderful affection, and their sons, who were 
reared in the royal household, were no less dear to him than his 
own. He had them instructed in all kinds of good morals, and, 
among other things, never ceased to teach them letters night- and 
day. 

But, as if he had no consolation in all these things, and though 

1 Among other labors in behalf of learning, Alfred made a collection of 
the ancient epics and lyrics of the Saxon people. Unfortunately, except 
in the case of the epic Beowulf, only fragments of these have survived. 
Beowulf was, so far as we know, the earliest of the Saxon poems, having 
originated before the migration to Britain, though it was probably put in 
its present form by a Christian monk of the eighth century. 

2 Armorica was the name applied in Alfred's time to the region south- 
ward from the mouth of the Seine to Brittany. 

3 There is a good deal of independent evidence that Alfred was peculiarly 
hospitable to foreigners. He delighted in learning from them about their 
peoples and experiences.- 

4 The word in the original is ministeriales. It is not Saxon but Franco- 
Latin and is an instance of the Frankish element in Asser's vocabulary. 
Here, as among the Franks, the ministeriales were the officials of second- 
rate importance surrounding the king, the highest being known as the 
ministri. 



alfeed's interest in education 189 

he suffered no other annoyance, either from within or without, 

he was harassed by daily and nightly affliction, so that he 

_ i i. I.- complained to God and to all who were admitted 
Regret at his ^ 

lack of educa- to his intimate fondness, that Almighty God had 
made him ignorant of divine wisdom, and of 
the liberal arts — in this emulating the pious, the wise, and 
wealthy Solomon, king of the Hebrews, who at first, despising all 
present glory and riches, asked wisdom of God and found both, 
namely, wisdom and worldly glory; as it is written: "Seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." But God, who is always the observer 
of the thoughts of the mind within and the author of all good 
intentions, and a most plentiful helper that good desires may be 
formed (for He would not prompt a man to good intentions, unless 
He also amply supplied that which the man justly and properly 
wishes to have) stimulated the king's mind within: as it is written, 
"I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me." 
He would avail himself of every opportunity to procure co-workers 
in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom that 
he might attain to what he aimed at. And, like a prudent bee, 
which, going forth in summer with the early morning from its cell, 
steers its rapid flight through the uncertain tracks of ether and 
descends on the manifold and varied flowers of grasses, herbs, 
and shrubs, discovering that which pleases most, that it may 
bear it home, so did he direct his eyes afar and seek without 
that which he had not within, that is, in his own kingdom.^ 

But God at that time, as some relief to the king's anxiety. 
Learned men yielding to his complaint, sent certain lights to 
braug?ft^t?the i^uminate him, namely, Werfrith, bishop of the 
English court church of Worcester, a man well versed in divine 
Scripture, who, by the king's command, first turned the books 

1 This comparison of the gathering of learning to the operations of a 
bee in coUecting honey is very common among classical ^Titers and also 
among those of the Carolingian renaissance. It occurs in Lucretius, Seneca, 
Macrobius, Alcuin, and the poet Candidus. 



190 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory and Peter, his disciple, from 
Latin into Saxon, and sometimes putting sense for sense, inter- 
preted them with clearness and elegance. After him was Pleg- 
mund,^ a Mercian by birth, archbishop of the church of Canter- 
bury, a venerable man, and endowed with wisdom; Ethelstan 
also,^ and Werwulf,^ his priests and chaplains,^ Mercians by birth 
and learned. These four had been invited from Mercia by King 
Alfred, who exalted them with many honors and powers in the 
kingdom of the West Saxons, besides the privileges which Arch- 
bishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith enjoyed in Mercia. By 
their teaching and wisdom the king's desires increased unceas- 
ingly, and were gratified. Night and day, whenever he had 
leisure, he commanded such men as these to read books to him, 
for he never suffered himself to be without one of them; wherefore 
he possessed a knowledge of every book, though of himself he 
could not yet understand anything of books, for he had not yet 
learned to read anything.^ 

But the king's commendable desire could not be gratified even 
Grimbald and in this; wherefore he sent messengers beyond the 
from the^on- ^^^ ^^ Gaul, to procure teachers, and he invited 
tinent . from thence Grimbald,^ priest and monk, a vener- 

able man and good singer, adorned with every kind of 

1 Plegmund became archbishop of Canterbury in 890, but it is probable 
that he was with Alfred some time before his election to the primacy. 

2 This Ethelstan was probably the person of that name who was conse- 
crated bishop of Ramsbury in 909. 

3 From another document it appears that Werwulf was a friend of Bishop 
Werfrith in Mercia before either took up residence at Alfred's court. 

4 In Chap. 104 of Asser's biography the capellani are described as supplying 
the king with candles, by whose burning he measured time. The word 
capellanus is of pure Frankish origin and was originally applied to the clerks 
{clerici capellani) who were charged with the custody of the cope (cappa) 
of St. Martin, which was kept in the capella. From this the term capella 
came to mean a room especially devoted to religious uses, that is, a chapel. 
It -^vas used in this sense as early as 829 in Frankland. Whether by capellanus 
Asser meant mere clerks, or veritable "chaplains" in the later sense, cannot 
be known, though his usage was probably the latter. 

5 Chapter 87 of Asser informs us that Alfred mastered the art of reading 
in the year 887. 

6 Grimbald came from the Flemish monastery of St. Bertin at St. Omer. 
He was recommended to Alfred by Fulco, archbishop of Rheims, who had 



Alfred's interest in education 191 

ecclesiastical training and good morals, and most learned in 
holy Scripture. He also obtained from thence John/ also priest 
and monk, a man of most energetic talents, and learned in all 
kinds of literary science, and skilled in many other arts. By 
the teaching of these men the king's mind was much enlarged, 
and he enriched and honored them with much influence. 

(b) 

King Alfred greets Bishop Werfrith with loving words and with 
friendship. 

I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into my 

mind what wise men there formerly were throughout England, 

Alfred writes both within the Church and without it; also what 

to Bishop Wer- happy times there were then and how the kings 
frith on the ^^^ ^ , . . , , 

state of learn- who had power over the nation m those days 

ing in England QJ^gygjj Qq,^ q^j^^ jjjg ministers; how they cherished 
peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time en- 
larged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both in 
war and in wisdom. Often have I thought, also, of the sacred 
orders, how zealous they were both in teaching and learning, 
and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners 
came to this land in search of wisdom and instruction, which 
things we should now have to get from abroad if we were to have 
them at all. 

So general became the decay of learning in England that there 
were very few on this side of the Humber ^ who could understand 
the rituals ^ in English, or translate a letter from Latin into 

once been abbot of St. Bertin. We do not know in what year Grimbald 
went to England, though there is some evidence that it was not far from 
887. 

1 John the Old Saxon is mentioned by Alfred as his mass-priest. It is 
probable that he came from the abbey of Corbei on the upper Weser. Not 
much is known about the man, but if he was as learned as Asser says he was, 
he must have been a welcome addition to Alfred's group of scholars par- 
ticularly as the language which he used was very similar to that of the West 
Saxons in England. 

2 That is, south of the Humber. 

3 The service of the Church. 



192 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the 
Humber who could do these things. There were so few, in fact, 
that I cannot remember a single person south of the Thames 
when I came to the throne. Thanks be to Almighty God that we 
now have some teachers among us. And therefore I enjoin thee 
to free thyself, as I believe thou art ready to do, from worldly 
matters, that thou mayst apply the wisdom which God has given 
thee wherever thou canst. Consider what punishments would 
come upon us if we neither loved wisdom ourselves nor allowed 
other men to obtain it. We should then care for the name only 
of Christian, and have regard for very few of the Christian 
virtues. 

When I thought of all this I remembered also how I saw the 
country before it had been all ravaged and burned; how the 
churches throughout the whole of England stood filled with 
treasures and books. There was also a great multitude of God's 
servants, but they had very little knowledge of books, for they 
could not understand anything in them because they were not 
written in their own language.^ When I remembered all this I 
Learning in wondered extremely that the good and wise men 
foTe1;he^Dan- ^^° ^^^® formerly all over England and had 
ish invasions learned perfectly all the books, did not wish to 
translate them into their own language. But again I soon 
answered myself and said: "Their own desire for learning was 
so great that they did not suppose that men would ever become 
so indifferent and that learning would ever so decay; and they 
wished, moreover, that wisdom in this land might increase with 
our knowledge of languages." Then I remembered how the 
law was first known in Hebrew and when the Greeks had learned 
it how they translated the whole of it into their own tongue,^ and 

1 They were written, of course, in Latin. 

2 By the middle of the third century a. d. as many as three different 
translations of the Old Testament into Greek had been made — those of 
Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmochus. These eventually took fixed shape 
in the so-called Septuagint version of the Old Testament. 



Alfred's interest in education 193 

all other books besides. And again the Romans, when they had 
learned- it, translated the whole of it into their own language.^ 
And also all other Christian nations translated a part of it into 
their languages. 

Therefore it seems better to me, if you agree, for us also to 
translate some of the books which are most needful for all men 
Plan to trans- to know into the language which we can all 
iTookslnto understand. It shall be your duty to see to it, 

English as can easily be done if we have tranquility 

enough,^ that all the free-born youth now in England, who are 
rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn 
as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are 
well able to read English writing. And let those afterwards be 
taught more in the Latin language who are to continue learning 
and be promoted to a higher rank. 

When I remembered how the knowledge of Latin had decayed 
through England, and yet that many could read English writing, 
I began, among other various and manifold troubles of this 
kingdom, to translate into English the book which is called in 
The transla- Latin Pastoralis, and in English The Shepherd's 
Grefforv's^as- ^'^^^j sometimes word for word, and sometimes 
toral Care according to the sense, as I had learned it from 

Plegmund, my archbishop, and Asser, my bishop, and Grimbald, 
my mass-priest, and John, my mass-priest. And when I had 
learned it, as I could best understand it and most clearly interpret 
it, I translated it into English. 

I will send a copy of this book to every bishopric in my king- 
dom, and on each copy there shall be a clasp worth fifty man- 
cuses.^ And I command in God's name that no man take the 

1 About the year 385 St. Jerome revised the older Latin translation of 
the New Testament and translated the Old Testament directly from the 
Hebrew. This complete version gradually superseded all others for the 
whole Latin-reading Church, being known as the "Vulgate," that is, the 
version commonly accepted. It was in the form of the Vulgate that the 
Scriptures were known to the Saxons and all other peoples of western Europe. 

2 In other words, sufficient relief from the Danish incursions. 

3 The mancus was a Saxon money value equivalent to a mark, 

Med. His.— 13 



194 ALFRED THE GREAT IN WAR AND IN PEACE 

clasp from the book, or the book from the minster.^ It is uncer- 
tain how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks be 
to God, there now are almost everywhere; therefore, I wish these 
copies always to remain in their places, unless the bishop desires 
to take them with him, or they be loaned out anywhere, or any 
one wishes to make a copy of them. 

32. Alfred's Laws 

Here are a few characteristic laws included by Alfred in the code 
which he drew up on the basis of old customs and the laws of some of 
the earlier Saxon kings. On the nature of the law of the early Ger- 
manic peoples, see p. 59. 

Source— Text in Benjamin Thorpe, The Ancient Laws and Institutes of 
England (London, 1840), pp. 20-44 passim. 

If any one smite his neighbor with a stone, or with his fist, and 
he nevertheless can go out with a staff, let him get him a physician 
and do his work as long as he himself cannot. 

If an ox gore a man or a woman, so that they die, let it be 
stoned, and let not its flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be 
liable if the ox were wont to push with its horns for two or three 
days before, and he knew it not; but if he knew it, and would not 
shut it in, and it then shall have slain a man or a woman, let it 
be stoned; and let the master be slain, or the person killed be 
paid for, as the "witan"^ shall decree to be right. 

Injure ye not the widows and the stepchildren, nor hurt them 
anywhere ; for if ye do otherwise they will cry unto me and I will 
hear them, and I will slay you with my sword; and I will cause 
that your own wives shall be widows, and your children shall be 
stepchildren. 

If a man strike out another's eye, let him pay sixty shillings, 

1 A minster was a church attached to a monastery. 

2 The witan was the gathering of "wisemen" — members of the royal 
family, high officials in the Church, and leading nobles — about the Anglo- 
Saxon king to assist in making ordinances and supervising the affairs of state. 



alfeed's laws 195 

and six shillings, and six pennies, and a third part of a penny, as 
'bot.'^ If it remain in the head, and he cannot see anything 
with it, let one-third of the ' bot ' be remitted. 

If a man strike out another's tooth in the front of his head, 

_ 14.- f let him make 'bot' for it with eight shillings; if 

various crimes it be the canine tooth, let four shillings be paid 

as ' bot.' A man's grinder is worth fifteen shillings. 

If the shooting finger be struck off, the ' bot ' is fifteen shillings; 
for its nail it is four shillings. 

If a man maim another's hand outwardly, let twenty shillings 
be paid him as 'bot,' if he can be healed; if it half fly off, then 
shall forty shillings be paid as 'bot.' 

1 Compensation rendered to an injured person. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ORDEAL 

33. Tests by Hot Water, Cold Water, and Fire 

Among the early Germans the settUng of disputes and the testing 
of the guilt or innocence of an accused person were generally accom- 
plished through the employment of one or both of two very interesting 
judicial practices — compurgation and the ordeal. According to the 
German conception of justice, when one person was accused of wrong- 
doing by another and chose to defend himself, he was not under ob- 
ligation to prove directly that he did not commit the alleged misdeed ; 
rather it was his business to produce, if he could, a sufficient number 
of persons who would take oath that they believed the accused to 
be a trustworthy man and that he was telling the truth when he 
denied that he was guilty. The persons brought forward to take this 
oath were known as compurgators, or "co-swearers," and the legal 
act thus performed was called compurgation. The number of com- 
purgators required to free a man was usually from seven to twelve, 
though it varied greatly among different tribes and according to the 
rank of the parties involved. Naturally they were likely to be relatives 
or friends of the accused man, though it was not essential that they 
be such. It was in no wise expected that they be able to give facts or 
evidence regarding the case; in other words, they were not to serve at 
all as witnesses, such as are called in our courts to-day. 

If the accused succeeded in producing the required number of com- 
purgators, and they took the oath in a satisfactory manner, the de- 
fendant was usually declared to be innocent and the case was dropped. 
If, however, the compurgators were not forthcoming, or there ap- 
peared some irregularity in their part of the procedure, resort would 
ordinarily be had to the ordeal. The ordeal was essentially an appeal 

196 



TESTS BY HOT WATER, COLD WATER, AND FIRE 197 

to the gods for decision between two contending parties. It was based 
on the behef that the gods would not permit an innocent person to 
suffer by reason of an unjust accusation and that when the opportunity 
was offered under certain prescribed conditions the divine power would 
indicate who was in the right and who in the wrong. The ordeal, hav- 
ing its origin far back in the times when the Germans were pagans 
and before their settlements in the Roman Empire, was retained in 
common usage after the Christianizing and civilizing of the barbarian 
tribes. The administering of it simply passed from the old pagan 
priests to the Christian clergy, and the appeals were directed to the 
Christian's God instead of to Woden and Thor. Under Christian in- 
fluence, the wager of battle (or personal combat to settle judicial ques- 
tions), which had been exceedingly common, was discouraged as much 
as possible, and certain new modes of appeal to divine authority were 
introduced. Throughout the earlier Middle Ages the chief forms of 
the ordeal were: (1) the ordeal by walking through fire; (2) the ordeal 
by hot iron, in which the accused either carried a piece of hot iron a 
certain distance in his hands or walked barefoot over pieces of the 
same material; (3) the ordeal by hot water, in which the accused was 
required to plunge his bared arm into boiling water and bring forth a 
stone or other object from the bottom; (4) the ordeal by cold water, 
in which the accused was thrown, bound hand and foot, into a pond or 
stream, to sink if he were innocent, to float if he were guilty; (5) the 
ordeal of the cross, in which the accuser and accused stood with arms 
outstretched in the form of a cross until one of them could endure the 
strain of the unnatural attitude no longer; (6) the ordeal of the sacra- 
ment, in which the accused partook of the sacrament, the idea being 
that divine vengeance would certainly fall upon him in so doing if he 
were guilty; (7) the ordeal of the bread and cheese, in which the ac- 
cused, made to swallow morsels of bread and cheese, was expected to 
choke if he were guilty; and (8) the judicial combat, which was gen- 
erally reserved for freemen, and which, despite the opposition of the 
Church, did not die out until the end of the mediaeval period. 

The three passages quoted below illustrate, respectively, the ordeal 
by hot water, by cold water, and by fire. The first (a) is a story told 
by the Frankish historian Gregory of Tours [see p. 46], The second (b) 
is an explanation of the cold water ordeal written by Hincmar, an arch- 



198 THE ORDEAL 

bishop of Rheims in the ninth century. The third (c) is an account, 
by Raymond of Agiles, of how Peter Bartholomew was put to the 
test by the ordeal of fire. This incident occurred at Antioch during 
the first crusade. Peter Bartholomew had just discovered a lance 
which he claimed was the one thrust into the side of Christ at the 
crucifixion and, some of the crusaders being skeptical as to the genuine- 
ness of the relic, the discoverer was submitted to the ordeal by fire to 
test the matter. 



Sources — (a) Gregorius Episcopus Turonensis, Lihri Miraculorum [Gregory 
of Tours, " Books of Miracles"], Chap. 80. Text in Monumenta 
Germanice Historica, Scriptores Merovingicarum, Vol. I., p. 542. 
Translated by Arthur C. Howland in Univ. of Pa. Translations 
and Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 4, pp. 10-11. 

(b) Hincmari Archiepiscopi Rhemensis, De divortio Lotharii regis 
et Tetbergce regince [Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, "The Di- 
vorce of King Lothair and Queen Teutberga ' '], Chap. 6. Text in 
Migne, Patrologice Cursus Completus, Second Series, Vol. CXXV., 
cols. 668-669. Translated by Arthur C. Howland, ihid. 

(c) Raimundus de Agiles, Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Jerus- 
alem [Raimond of Agiles, "History of the Franks who captured 
Jerusalem"], Chap. 18. Text in Migne, Patrologice. Cursus Com- 
pletus, Second Series, Vol. CLV., cols. 619-621. 

An Arian presbyter, disputing with a deacon of our religion, 
made venomous assertions against the Son of God and the Holy 
Ghost, as is the habit of that sect.^ But when the deacon had 
discoursed a long time concerning the reasonableness of our faith, 
and the heretic, blinded by the fog of unbelief, continued to reject 
the truth (according as it is written, "Wisdom shall not enter 

1 The principal difference between Arian and orthodox Christians arose out 
of the much discussed problem as to whether Jesus was of the same sub- 
stance as God and co-eternal with Him. The Arians maintained that while 
Jesus was truly the Son of God, He must necessarily have been inferior to 
the Father, else there would be two gods. Arianism was formally con- 
demned by the Council of Nicaea in 325, but it continued to be the prevalent 
belief in many parts of the Roman Empire; and when the Germans became 
Christians, it was Christianity of the Arian type (except in the case of the 
Franks) that they adopted — because it happened to be this creed that the 
missionaries carried to them. The Franks became orthodox Christians, 
which in part explains their close relations with the papacy in the earlier 
Middle Ages [see p. 50]. Of course Gregory of Tours, who relates the story 
of the Arian presbyter, as a Frank, was a hater of Arianism, and therefore we 
need not be surprised at the expressions of contempt which he employs in 
referring to "the heretic." 



TESTS BY HOT WATER, COLD WATER, AND FIRE 199 

the mind of the wicked") the former said: ''Why weary our- 
selves with long discussions? Let acts demonstrate the truth. 

. , „ . Let a kettle be heated over the fire and some one's 

A challenge to 

the ordeal by ring be thrown into the boiling water. Let him 
who shall take it from the heated liquid be ap- 
proved as a follower of the truth, and afterwards let the other 
party be converted to the knowledge of this truth. And do thou 
understand, heretic, that this our party will fulfill the condi- 
tions with the aid of the Holy Ghost; thou shalt confess that there 
is no inequality, no dissimilarity, in the Holy Trinity." The 
heretic consented to the proposition and they separated, after 
appointing the next morning for the trial. But the fervor of 
faith in which the deacon had first made this suggestion began 
to cool through the instigation of the enemy [i. e., Satan]. Rising 
with the dawn, he bathed his arm in oil and smeared it with 
ointment. But nevertheless he made the round of the sacred 
places and called in prayer on the Lord. What more shall I say? 
About the third hour they met in the market place. The people 
came together to see the show. A fire was lighted, the kettle was 
Preparations placed upon it, and when it grew very hot the 
for the ordeal j.jj^g ^^^g ^^hrown into the boiling water. The 
deacon invited the heretic to take it out of the water first. But 
he promptly refused, saying, "Thou who didst propose this trial 
art the one to take it out." The deacon, all of a tremble, bared 
his arm. And when the heretic presbyter saw it besmeared with 
ointment he cried out: "With magic arts thou hast thought to 
protect thyself, that thou hast made use of these salves, but what 
thou hast done will not avail." While they were thus quarreling, 
there came up a deacon from Ravenna named lacinthus, who 
inquired what the trouble was about. When he learned the truth, 
he drew his arm out from under his robe at once and plunged his 
right hand into the kettle. Now the ring that had been thrown 
in was a little thing and very light, so that it was tossed about 
by the water as chaff would be blown about by the wind; and. 



200 THE ORDEAL 

searching for it a long time, he found it after about an hour. 
Meanwhile the flame beneath the kettle blazed up mightily, so 
that the greater heat might make it difficult for the ring to be 
followed by the hand ; but the deacon extracted it at length and 
Result of the suffered no harm, protesting rather that at the 
ordeal bottom the kettle was cold while at the top it was 

just pleasantly warm. When the heretic beheld this, he was 
greatly confused and audaciously thrust his hand into the kettle 
saying, "My faith will aid me." As soon as his hand had been 
thrust in, all the flesh was boiled off the bones clear up to the 
elbow. And so the dispute ended. 

(b) 

Now the one about to be examined is bound by a rope and cast 
into the water because, as it is written, "each one shall be holden 
with the cords of his iniquity." And it is manifest that he is bound 
for two reasons, namely, that he may not be able to practice any 
fraud in connection with the judgment, and that he may be drawn 
out at the right time if the water should receive him as innocent, 
so that he perish not. For as we read that Lazarus, who had been 
dead four days (by whom is signifled each one buried under a 
load of crimes), was buried wrapped in bandages and, bound by 
the same bands, came forth from the sepulchre at the word of 
How the or- the Lord and was loosed by the disciples at His 
water^is^ttfbe command; so he who is to be examined by this 
conducted judgment is cast into the water bound, and is 

drawn forth again bound, and is either immediately set free by 
the decree of the judges, being purged, or remains bound un- 
til the time of his purgation and is then examined by the court. 
. . . And in this ordeal of cold water whoever, after the in- 
vocation of God, who is the Truth, seeks to hide the truth by a 
lie, cannot be submerged in the waters above which the voice of 
the Lord God has thundered; for the pure nature of the water 
recognizes as impure, and therefore rejects as inconsistent with 



TESTS BY HOT WATER, COLD WATER, AND FIRE 201 

itself, such human nature as has once been regenerated by the 
waters of baptism and is again infected by falsehood. 

(c) 

All these things were pleasing to us and, having enjoined on 

him a fast, we declared that a fire should be prepared upon the 

day on which the Lord was beaten with stripes and put upon 

the cross for our salvation. And the fourth day thereafter was 

the day before the Sabbath. So when the appointed day came 

round, a fire was prepared after the noon hour. The leaders and 

the people to the number of 60,000 came together. The priests 

.„ .. were there also with bare feet, clothed in ecclesi- 

Preparations ' 

for the ordeal astical garments. The fire was made of dry 
olive branches, covering a space thirteen feet 
long; and there were two piles, with a space about a foot wide 
between them. The height of these piles was four feet. Now 
when the fire had been kindled so that it burned fiercely, I, Rai- 
mond, in the presence of the whole multitude, said: "If Omnipo- 
tent God has spoken to this man face to face, and the blessed An- 
drew has shown him our Lord's lance while he was keeping his 
vigil, ^ let him go through the fire unharmed. But if it is false, 
let him be burned, together with the lance, which he is to carry 
in his hand." And all responded on bended knees, "Amen." 

The fire was growing so hot that the flames shot up thirty 
cubits high into the air and scarcely any one dared approach 
Peter Barthol- it. Then Peter Bartholomew, clothed only in 
throuffh^^he^ ^^^ tunic and kneeling before the bishop of Albar,^ 
flames called God to witness that "he had seen Him 

face to face on the cross, and that he had heard from Him those 
things above written." . . . Then, when the bishop had 
placed the lance in his hand, he knelt and made the sign of 

1 The story as told by Raimond of Agiles was that Peter Bartholomew had 
been visited by Andrew the Apostle, who had revealed to him the spot where 
the lance lay buried beneath the Church of St. Peter in Antioch. 

2 Albar, or Albara, was a town southeast of Antioch, beyond the Orontes, 



202 THE ORDEAL 

the cross and entered the fire with the lance, firm and unter- 
rified. For an instant's time he paused in the midst of the flames, 
and then by the grace of God passed through. . . . But 
when Peter emerged from the fire so that neither his tunic was 
burned nor even the thin cloth with which the lance was wrapped 
up had shown any sign of damage, the whole people received him, 
after he had made over them the sign of the cross with the lance 
in his hand and had cried, "God help us!" All the people, I 
say, threw themselves upon him and dragged him to the ground 
and trampled on him, each one wishing to touch him, or to get a 
piece of his garment, and each thinking him near some one else. 
And so he received three or four wounds in the legs where the 
flesh was torn away, his back was injured, and his sides bruised. 
Peter had died on the spot, as we believe, had not Raimond Pelet, 
a brave and noble soldier, broken through the wild crowd with a 
band of friends and rescued him at the peril of their lives. . . . 
After this, Peter died in peace at the hour appointed to him by 
God, and journeyed to the Lord; and he was buried in the place 
where he had carried the lance of the Lord through the fire.^ 

1 Owing to Peter's early death after undergoing the ordeal, a serious con- 
troversy arose as to whether he had really passed through it without injury 
from the fire. His friends ascribed his death to the wounds he had received 
from the enthusiastic crowd, but his enemies declared that he died from 
burns. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

34. Older Institutions Involving Elements of Feudalism 

The history of the feudal system in Europe makes up a very large 
part of the history of the Middle Ages, particularly of the period be- 
tween the ninth and the fourteenth centuries. This is true because 
feudalism, in one way or another, touched almost every phase of the 
life of western Europe during this long era. More than anything else, 
it molded the conditions of government, the character and course of 
war, the administration of justice, the tenure of land, the manner of 
everyday life, and even the relations of the Church with sovereigns 
and people. "Coming into existence," says a French historian, "in 
the obscure period that followed the dissolution of the Carolingian 
empire, the feudal regime developed slowly, without the intervention 
of a government, without the aid of a written law, without any general 
understanding among individuals ; rather only by a gradual transforma- 
tion of customs, which took place sooner or later, but in about the same 
way, in France, Italy, Christian Spain, and Germany. Then, toward 
the end of the eleventh century, it was transplanted into England and 
into southern Italy, in the twelfth and thirteenth into the Latin states 
of the East, and beginning with the fourteenth into the Scandinavian 
countries. This regime, established thus not according to a general 
plan but by a sort of natural growth, never had forms and usages that 
were everywhere the same. It is impossible to gather it up into a 
perfectly exact picture, which would not be in contradiction to several 
cases." ^ 

The country in which feudalism reached its fullest perfection was 
France and most of the passages here given to illustrate the subject 

1 Charles Seignobos, The Feudal Regime (translated in "Historical Miscel- 
lany" series), New York, 1904, p. 1. 

^03 



204 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

have to do with French Hfe and institutions. In France, speaking gen- 
erally, feudalism took shape during the ninth and tenth centuries, 
developed steadily until the thirteenth, and then slowly declined, 
leaving influences on society which have not yet all disappeared. When 
the system was complete — say by the tenth century — we can see in it 
three essential elements which may be described as the personal, the 
territorial, and the governmental. The personal element, in brief, was 
the relation between lord and vassal under which the former gave 
protection in return for the latter 's fidelity. The territorial element 
was the benefice, or fief, granted to the vassal by the lord to be used 
on certain conditions by the former while the title to it remained with 
the latter. The governmental element was the rights of jurisdiction 
over his fief usually given by a lord to his vassal, especially if the fief 
were an important one. At one time it was customary to trace back 
all these features of the feudal system to the institutions of Rome. 
Later it became almost as customary to trace them to the institutions 
of the early Germans. But recent scholarship shows that it is quite 
unnecessary, in fact very misleading, to attempt to ascribe them wholly 
to either Roman or German sources, or even to both together. All that 
we can say is that in the centuries preceding the ninth these elements 
all existed in the society of western Europe and that, while something 
very like them ran far back into old Roman and German times, they 
existed in sixth and seventh century Europe primarily because con- 
ditions were then such as to demand their existence. Short extracts to 
illustrate the most important of these old feudal elements are given 
below. It should constantly be borne in mind that no one of these 
things — whether vassalage, the benefice, or the immunity — was in itself 
feudalism. Most of them could, and did, exist separately, and it was 
only when they were united, as commonly became the case in the ninth 
and tenth centuries, that the word feudalism can properly be brought 
into use, and then only as apphed to the complete product. 

(1) Vassalage 

For the personal element in feudalism it is possible to find two proto- 
types, one Roman and the other German. The first was the institution 
of the later Empire known as the patrocinium — the relation established 



THE EARLY ELEMENTS OF FEUDALISM 205 

between a powerful man (patron) and a weak one (client) when the 
latter pledged himself to perform certain services for the former in 
return for protection. The second was the German comitatus — a band 
of young warriors who lived with a prince or noble and went on cam- 
paigns under his leadership. The patrocinium doubtless survived in 
Roman Gaul long after the time of the Frankish invasion, but it is not 
likely that the comitatus ever played much part in that country. It 
seems that, with the exception of the king, the Frankish men of in- 
fluence did not have bands of personal followers after the settlement 
on Roman soil. But, wholly aside from earlier practices, the condi- 
tions which the conquest, and the later struggles of the rival kings, 
brought about made it still necessary for many men who could not 
protect themselves or their property to seek the favor of some one who 
was strong enough to give them aid. The name which came to be 
applied to the act of establishing this personal relation was commenda- 
tion. The man who promised the protection was the lord, and the man 
who pledged himself to serve the lord and be faithful to him was the/ 
homo, after the eighth century known as the vassal (vassus). In the 
eighth century, when the power of the Merovingian kings was ebbing 
away and the people were left to look out for themselves, large num- 
bers entered into the vassal relation; and in the ninth century, when 
Carolingian power was likewise running low and the Northmen, Hun- 
garians, and Saracens were ravaging the country, scarcely a free man 
was left who did not secure for himself the protection of a lord. The ^ 
relation of vassalage was first recognized as legal in the capitularies of 
Charlemagne. Here is a Frankish formula of commendation dating 
from the seventh century — practically a blank application in which the 
names of the prospective lord and vassal could be inserted as required. 

Source — Eugene de Roziere, Recueil General des Formules usitees dans l' Empire 
des Francs du V au X« siecle ["General Collection of Formulae 
employed in the Frankish Empire from the Fifth to the Tenth 
Century"], Vol. I., p. 69. Translated by Edward P. Cheyney in 
Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 3, pp. 3-4. 

To that magnificent lord , I, . Since it is 

well known to all how little I have wherewith to feed and clothe 
myself, I have therefore petitioned your piety, and your good- 



206 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

will has decreed to me, that I should hand myself over, or com- 
mend myself, to your guardianship, which I have thereupon 
done; that is to say, in this way, that you should aid and succor 
me, as well with food as with clothing, according as I shall be 
able to serve you and deserve it. 

And so long as I shall live I ought to provide service and 
honor to you, compatible with my free condition; ^ and I shall 
not, during the time of my life, have the right to withdraw from 
your control or guardianship; but must remain during the days 
of my life under your power or defense. Wherefore it is proper 
that if either of us shall wish to withdraw himself from these 

agreements, he shall pay shillings to the other party, 

and this agreement shall remain unbroken.^ 

(Wherefore it is fitting that they should make or confirm 
between themselves two letters, drawn up in the same form on 
this matter; which they have thus done.) 

(2) The Benefice 

The benefice, or grant of land to a vassel by a lord, by the Church, 
or by the king, had its origin among the Franks in what were known 
as the precaria of the Church. At the time of the Frankish settlement 
in Gaul, it was quite customary for the Church to grant land to men in 
answer to preces (" prayers," or requests), on condition that it might 
be recalled at any time and that the temporary holder should be unable 
to enforce any claims as against the owner. For the use of such land a 
small rent in money, in produce, or in service was usually paid. This 
form of tenure among the Franks was at first restricted to church 
lands, but by the eighth century lay owners, even the king himself, had 
come to employ it. The term precarium dropped out of use and all such 
grants, by whomsoever made, came to be known as benefices ("bene- 

3 A man was not supposed in any way to sacrifice his freedom by becoming 
a vassal and the lord's right to his service would be forfeited if this principle 
were violated. 

2 The relation of lord and vassal was, at this early time, limited to the 
lifetime of the two parties. When one died, the other was liberated from 
his contract* But in the ninth and tenth centuries vassalage became gener- 
ally hereditary. 



THE EARLY ELEMENTS OF FEUDALISM 207 

fits, " or "favors"). The ordinary vassal might or might not once have 
had land in his own name, but if he had such he was expected to give 
over the ownership of it to his lord and receive it back as a benefice to 
be used on certain prescribed conditions. In time it became common, 
too, for lords to grant benefices out of their own lands to landless vas- 
sals. A man could be a vassal without having a benefice, but rarely, 
at least after the eighth century, could he have a benefice without en- 
tering into the obligations of vassalage. Benefices were at first granted 
by the Church with the understanding that they might be recalled at 
any time; later they were granted by Church, kings, and seigniors for 
life, or for a certain term of years; and finally, in the ninth and tenth 
centuries, they came generally to be regarded as hereditary. By the 
time the hereditary principle had been established, the name "fief" 
{feodum, jeudum — whence our word feudal) had supplanted the older 
term " benefice." The tendency of the personal element of vassalage and 
the territorial element of the benefice, or fief, to merge was very strong, 
and by the tenth century nearly every vassal was also a fief-holder. 
The following formulae belong to the seventh century. The first (a) is 
for the grant of lands to a church or monastery; the second (b) for 
their return to the grantor as a precarium — or what was known a 
century later as a benefice. 

Source — Eugene de Roziere, Recueil General des Formules, Vol. I., p. 473. 
Translated by E. P. Cheyney in Univ. of Pa. Translations and 
Reprints, Vol. IV., No, 3, pp. 6-8. 

(a) 

I, , in the name of God. I have settled in my mind 

that I ought, for the good of my soul, to make a gift of something 

from my possessions, which I have therefore done. And this 

is what I hand over, in the district named , in the place 

of which the name is , all those possessions of mine 

which there my father left me at his death, and which, as against 

my brothers, or as against my co-heirs, the lot legitimately 

brought me in the division,^ or those which I was able afterward 

1 Casting lots for the property of a deceased father was not uncommon 
among the Franks. All sons shared in the inheritance, but particular parts 
of the property were often assigned by lot. 



208 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

to add to them in any way, in their whole completeness, that is 
to say, the courtyard with its buildings, with slaves, houses. 
Description of lands (cultivated and uncultivated), meadows, 
ed°to^a'^chifrch woods, waters, mills, etc. These, as I have said 
or monastery before, with all the things adjacent or belonging 
to them, I hand over to the church, which was built in honor 

of Saint , to the monastery which is called , 

where the Abbot is acknowledged to rule regularly 

over God's flock. On these conditions: that so long as life 
remains in my body, I shall rec-eive from you as a benefice for 
Terms of usufruct the possessions above described, and the 
the contract ^j^g payment I will make to you and your succes- 
sors each year, that is [amount named]. And my son 

shall have the same possessions for the days of his life, and shall 
make the above-named payment; and if my children should 
survive me, they shall have the same possessions during the days 
of their lives and shall make the same payment; and if God shall 
give me a son from a legitimate wife, he shall have the same 
possessions for the days of his life only, after the death of whom 
the same possessions, with all their improvements, shall return 
to your hands to be held forever; and if it should be my chance 
to beget sons from a legitimate marriage, these shall hold the 
same possessions after my death, making the above-named 
payment, during the time of their lives. If not, however, after 
my death, without subterfuge of any kind, by right of your 
authority, the same possessions shall revert to you, to be re- 
tained forever. If any one, however (which I do not believe 
will ever occur) — if I myself, or any other person — shall wish 
to violate the firmness and validity of this grant, the order of 
truth opposing him, may his falsity in no degree succeed; and 
Penalty for for his bold attempt may he pay to the afore- 
faithlessness gg^j^j monastery double the amount which his 
ill-ordered cupidity has been prevented from abstracting; and 
moreover let him be indebted to the royal authority for 



The early elements of feudalism 209 

solidi of gold; and, nevertheless, let the present charter re- 
main inviolate with all that it contains, with the witnesses placed 
below. 

Done in , publicly, those who are noted below- 
being present, or the remaining innumerable multitude of 
people. 

(b) 

In the name of God, I, Abbot , with our commis- 
sioned brethren. Since it is not unknown how you, , 

by the suggestion of divine exhortation, did grant to 

[monastery named], to the church which is known to be con- 
structed in honor of Saint , where we by God's au- 
thority exercise our pastoral care, all your possessions which 
you seemed to have in the district named, in the vill [village] 
named, which your father on his death bequeathed to you there, 
or which by your own labor you were able to gain there, or 

which, as against your brother or against , a co-heir, 

The property ^ ^^®* division gave you, with courtyard and 
again de- buildings, gardens and orchards, with various 
scribed , ^ i i i n 

slaves, by name, houses, lands, mead- 
ows, woods (cultivated and uncultivated), or with all the de- 
pendencies and appurtenances belonging to it, which it would 
be extremely long to enumerate, in all their completeness; but 
Returned to afterwards, at your request, it has seemed proper 

owne"to^be ^° ^^ *° ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ same possessions to be 
used by him held for usufruct; and you will not neglect to pay 
at annual periods the due census [i. e., the rental] hence, that is 

[amount named]. And if God should give you a son by 

your legal wife, he shall have the same possessions for the days 
of his life only, and shall not presume to neglect the above pay- 
ment, and similarly your sons which you are seen to have at 
present, shall do for the days of their lives; after the death of 
whom, all the possessions above-named shall revert to us and 

Med. Hist.— 14 



210 " THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

our successors perpetually. Moreover, if no sons shall have 
been begotten by you, immediately after your death, without 
any harmful contention, the possessions shall revert to the rulers 
or guardians of the above-named church, forever. Nor may any 
one, either ourselves or our successors, be successful in a rash 
attempt inordinately to destroy these agreements, but just as 
the time has demanded in the present precaria, may that be 
sure to endure unchanged which we, with the consent of our 
brothers, have decided to confirm. 

Done in — , in the presence of and of others 

whom it is not worth while to enumerate. [Seal of the same 
abbot who has ordered this precaria to be made.] 

(3) The Immunity 

The most important element in the governmental phase of feudalism 
was what was known as the immunity. In Roman law immunity 
meant exemption from taxes and public services and belonged espe- 
cially to the lands owned personally by the emperors. Such exemp- 
tions were, however, sometimes allowed to the lands of imperial officers 
and of men in certain professions, and in later times to the lands held 
by the Church. How closely this Roman immunity was connected 
with the feudal immunity of the Middle Ages is not clear. Doubtless 
the institution survived in Gaul, especially on church lands, long after 
the Frankish conquest. It is best, however, to look upon the typical 
Frankish immunity as of essentially independent origin. From the 
time of Clovis, the kings were accustomed to make grants of the sort 
to land-holding abbots and bishops, and by the time of Charlemagne 
nearly all such prelates had been thus favored. But such grants were 
not confined to ecclesiastics. Even in the seventh and eighth centuries 
lay holders of royal benefices often received the privileges of the im- 
munity also. Speaking generally, the immunity exempted the lands 
to which it applied from the jurisdiction of the local royal officials, 
especially of the counts. The lands were supposed to be none the less 
ultimately subject to the royal authority, but by the grant of immunity 
the sovereign took their financial and judicial administration from the 
counts, who would ordinarily have charge, and gave it to the holders of 



THE EARLY ELEMENTS OF FEUDALISM 211 

the lands. The counts were forbidden to enter the specified territories to 
collect taxes or fines, hold courts, and sometimes even to arrange for 
military service. The layman, or the bishop, or the abbot, who held 
the lands performed these services and was responsible only to the 
crown for them. The king's chief object in granting the immunity was - 
to reward or win the support of the grantees and to curtail the author- 1 
ity of his local representatives, who in many cases threatened to be- 
come too powerful for the good of the state; but by every such grant 
the sovereign really lost some of his own power, and this practice came 
to be in no small measure responsible for the weakness of monarchy in 
feudal times. 

The first of the extracts below (a) is a seventh-century formula for 
the grant of an immunity by the king to a bishop. The second (b) 
is a grant made by Charlemagne, in 884, confirming an old immunity 
enjoyed by the monastery at Chalons-sur-Saone. 

Sources — (a) Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Legum Sedio V., 

FormulcB, Part I., pp. 43-44. 

(b) Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Pertz ed.), 

■ Vol. IL, p. 287. Adapted from translation in Ephraim Emer- 

ton, Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (new ed. 

Boston, 1903), p. 246. 

(a) 
We believe that we give our royal authority its full splendor 
if, with benevolent intentions, we bestow upon churches — or 
upon any persons — the favors which they merit, and if, with the 
aid of God, we give a written assurance of the continuance of 
these favors. We wish, then, to make known that at the re- 
quest of a prelate, lord of — [the estate named] and bishop 

of — [the church named], we have accorded to him, for 

the sake of our eternal salvation, the following benefits: that in 
the "domains of the bishop's church, both those which it possesses 

, „ , „ to-day and those which by God's grace it may 
A formula for -^ -^ '^ -^ 

a grant of im- later acquire, no public official shall be permitted 
^ ^ y Iq enter, either to hold courts or to exact fines, 

on any account; but let these prerogatives be vested in full in 
the bishop and his successors. We ordain therefore that neither 



212 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

you nor your subordinates/ nor those who come after you, nor 
any person endowed with a pubUc office, shall ever enter the 
domains of that church, in whatever part of our kingdom they 
may be situated, either to hold trials or to collect fines. All the 
taxes and other revenues which the royal treasury has a right to 
demand from the people on the lands of the said church, whether 
they be freemen or slaves, Romans or barbarians, we now bestow 
on the said church for our future salvation, to be used by the 
officials of the church forever for the best interests of the church. 

(b) 

Charles, by the grace of God King of the Franks and Lom- 
bards and Patrician of the Romans, to all having charge of our 
affairs, both present and to come: 

By the help of the Lord, who has raised us to the throne of 
this kingdom, it is the chief duty of our clemency to lend a 
gracious ear to the need of all, and especially ought we devoutly 
to regard that which we are persuaded has been granted by pre- 
ceding kings to church foundations for the saving of souls, and 
not to deny fitting benefits, in order that we may deserve to be 
partakers of the reward, but to confirm them in still greater 
security. 

Now the illustrious Hubert, bishop and ruler of the church of 
St. Marcellus, which lies below the citadel of Chalons,^ where the 
The old im- precious martyr of the Lord himself rests in the 
munity en- body, has brought it to the attention of our 

monastery at Highness that the kings who preceded us, or 
Chalons ^^^ 1^^,^ ^^^^ father of blessed memory, Pepin, the 

preceding king, had by their charters granted complete im- 
munities to that monastery, so that in the towns or on the lands 

1 The grant of immunity was thus brought to the attention of the count 
in whose jurisdiction the exempted lands lay. 

2 Chalons-sur-Saone was about eighty miles north of the junction of the 
Saone with the Rhone. It should not be confused with Chalons-sur-Marne 
where the battle was fought with Attila's Huns in 451. 



THE EARLY ELEMENTS OF FEUDALISM 213 

belonging to it no public judge, nor any one with power of hear- 
ing cases or exacting fines, or raising sureties, or obtaining 
lodging or entertainment, or making requisitions of any kind, 
should enter. 

Moreover, the aforesaid bishop, Hubert, has presented the 
original charters of former kings, together with the confirma- 
tions of them, to be read by us, and declares the same favors to 
be preserved to the present day; but desiring the confirmation 
of our clemency, he prays that our authority may confirm this 
grant anew to the monastery. 

Wherefore, having inspected the said charters of former kings, 
we command that neither you, nor your subordinates, nor your 
successors, nor any person having judicial powers, shall presume 
to enter into the villages which may at the present time be in 
possession of that monastery, or which hereafter may have been 
bestowed by God-fearing men [or may be about to be so be- 
stowed].^ Let no public officer enter for the hearing of cases. 
The immunity or for exacting fines, or procuring sureties, or 
confirmed obtaining lodging or entertainment, or making 

any requisitions; but in full immunity, even as the favor of former 
kings has been continued down to the present day, so in the 
future also shall it, through our authority, remain undiminished. 
And if in times past, through any negligence of abbots, or luke- 
warmness of rulers, or the presumption of public officers, any- 
thing has been changed or taken away, removed or withdrawn, 
from these immunities, let it, by our authority and favor, be 
restored. And, further, let neither you nor your subordinates 
presume to infringe upon or violate what we have granted. 

But if there be any one, dominus,^ comes [count], domesticus ,^ 
vicarius,'^ or one vested with any judicial power whatsoever, by 

1 There is some doubt at this point as to the correct translation. That 
given seems best warranted. 

2 Dominus was a common name for a lord. 

3 A member of the king's official household. 

4 A subordinate officer under the count [see p. 176, note 3]. 



214 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

the indulgence of the good or by the favor of pious Christians or 
kings, who shall have presumed to infringe upon or violate these 
Penalties for immunities, let him be punished Avith a fine of six 
its violation hundred solidi,^ two parts to go to the library of 
this monastery, and the third part to be paid into our treasury, 
so that impious men may not rejoice in violating that which 
our ancestors, or good Christians, may have conceded or granted. 
And whatever our treasury may have had a right to expect from 
this source shall go to the profit of the men of this church of 
St. Marcellus the martyr, to the better establishment of our 
kingdom and the good of those who shall succeed us. 

And that this decree may firmly endure we have ordered it to 
be confirmed with our own hand under our seal, 

35. The Granting of Fiefs 

The most obvious feature of feudalism was a peculiar divided tenure 
of land under which the title was vested in one person and the use in 
another. The territorial unit was the fief, which in extent might be 
but a few acres, a whole county, or even a vast region like Normandy 
or Burgundy. Fiefs were granted to vassals by contracts which bound 
both grantor and grantee to certain specific obligations. The two 
extracts below are examples of the records of such feudal grants, 
bearing the dates 1167 and 1200 respectively. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that fiefs need not necessarily be land. Offices, pay- 
ments of money, rights to collect tolls, and many other valuable things 
might be given by one man to another as fiefs in just the same way 
that land was given. Du Cange, in his Glossarium Medice et Infimce 
Latinitatis, mentions eighty-eight different kinds of fiefs, and it has 
been said that this does not represent more than one-fourth of the total 
number. Nevertheless, the typical fief consisted of land. The term 
might therefore be defined in general as the land for which the vassal, / 
or hereditary possessor, rendered to the lord, or hereditary proprietor,' 
services of a special character which were considered honorable, such 
as military aid and attendance at courts. 

1 See p. 61, note 2. 



THE GRANTING OF FIEFS 215 

Sources — (a) Nicolas Brussel, Nouvel Examen de I'Usage general des Fiefs en 
France pendant le XI, le XII, le XIII, et le XIV^ Steele ["New 
Examination of the Customs of Fiefs in the 11th, the 12th, the 
13th, and the 14th Century"], Paris, 1727, Vol. I., p. 3, note. 
Translated by Edward P. Cheyney in Univ. of Pa. Translations 
and Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 3, pp. 15-16. 

(b) Maximilien Quantin, Recueil de Pieces du XIIP Siecle ["Col- 
lection of Documents of the Thirteenth Century"], Auxerre, 
1873, No. 2, pp. 1-2. Translated by Cheyney, ibid. 

(a) 

In the name of tlie Holy and Undivided Trinity, Amen. I, 

Louis/ by tlie grace of God king of tlie Frencii, make known to 

all present as well as to come, that at JMante in our presence, 

Count Henry of Champagne ^ conceded the fief of Savigny to 

The count of Bartholomew, bishop of Beauvais,^ and his suc- 

Ohampagne cessors. And for that fief the said bishop has 

grants a fief to 

the bishop of made promise and engagement for one knight 

eauvais ^^^ justice and service to Count Henry; ^ and 

he also agreed that the bishops who shall come after him will 

do likewise. In order that this may be understood and known 

to posterity we have caused the present charter to be attested 

by our seal. Done at Mante, in the year of the Incarnate Word, 

1167; present in our palace those whose names and seals are 

appended: seal of Thiebault, our steward; seal of Guy, the 

butler; seal of Matthew, the chamberlain; seal of Ralph, the 

constable. Given by the hand of Hugh, the chancellor. 

(b) 
I, Thiebault, count palatine of Troyes,^ make known to those 
present and to come that I have given in fee ^ to Jocelyn d'Avalon 

1 Louis VII., king of France, 1137-1180. 

2 The county of Champagne lay to the east of Paris. It was established 
by Charlemagne and, while at first insignificant, grew until by the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries it was one of the most important in France. 

3 Beauvais was about sixty miles northwest of Paris. 

4 That is, the bishop of Beauvais was bound to furnish his lord, the 
count of Champagne, the service of one knight for his army, besides ordi- 
nary feudal obligations. 

5 The county of Troyes centered about the city of that name on the 
upper Seine. It was eventually absorbed by Champagne. 

6 As a fief. 



216 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

and his heirs the manor which is called Gillencourt/ which is of 
the castellanerie ^ of La Ferte-sur-Aube; and whatever the same 
Jocelyn shall be able to acquire in the same manor I have granted 
to him and his heirs in enlargement of that fief. I have granted, 
moreover, to him that in no free manor of mine will I retain men 
who are of this gift.^ The same Jocelyn, moreover, on account 
of this has become my liege man, saving, however, his allegiance 
. tb * ^° Gerad d'Arcy, and to the lord duke of Bur- 

Count Thie- gundy, and to Peter, count of Auxerre.^ Done 
at Chouaude, by my own witness, in the year of 
the Incarnation of our Lord 1200, in the month of January. 
Given by the hand of Walter, my chancellor. 

36. The Ceremonies of Homage and Fealty 

The personal relation between lord and vassal was established by 
the double ceremony of homage and fealty. Homage was the act by 
which the vassal made himself the man (homo) of the lord, while fealty 
was the oath of fidelity to the obligations which must ordinarily be 
assumed by such a man. The two were really distinct, though because 
they almost invariably went together they finally became confounded in 
the popular mind. The details of the ceremonies varied much in differ- 
ent times and places, but, in general, when homage was to be performed, 
the prospective vassal presented himself before his future seigneur 

1 A manor, in the general sense, was a feudal estate. 

2 A castellanerie was a feudal holding centering about a castle. 

3 That is. Count Thiebault promises Jocelyn not to deprive him of the 
services of men who rightfully belong on the manor which is being granted. 

4 Here is an illustration of the complexity of the feudal system. Count 
Thiebault is Jocelyn 's fourth lord, and loyalty and service are owed to all 
of the four at the same time. Accordingly, Thiebault must be content with 
only such allegiance of his new vassal as will not involve a breach of the 
contracts which Jocelyn has already entered into with his other lords. 
For example, Thiebault could not expect Jocelyn to aid him in war against 
the duke of Burgundy, for Jocelyn is pledged to fidelity to that duke. In 
general, when a man had only one lord he owed him full and unconditional 
allegiance (liege homage), but when he became vassal to other lords he could 
promise them allegiance only so far as would not conflict with contracts 
already entered into. It was by no means unusual for a man to have 
several lords, and it often happened that A was B's vassal for a certain 
piece of land while at the same time B was A's vassal for another piece. 
Not infrequently the king himself was thus a vassal of one or more of his 
own vassals. 



THE CEREMONIES OF HOMAGE AND FEALTY 217 

bareheaded and without arms; knelt, placed his hands in those of the 
seigneur, and declared himself his man ; then he was kissed by the seign- 
eur and lifted to his feet. In the act of fealty, the vassal placed his hand 
upon sacred relics, or upon the Bible, and swore eternal faithfulness to 
his seigneur. The so-called "act of investiture" generally followed, the 
seigneur handing over to the vassal a bit of turf, a stick, or some other 
object symbolizing the transfer of the usufruct of the property in ques- 
tion. The whole process was merely a mode of establishing a binding 
contract between the two parties. Below we have: (a) a mediaeval 
definition of homage, taken from the customary law of Normandy; 
(5) an explanation of fealty, given in an old English law-book; (c) a 
French chronicler's account of the rendering of homage and fealty to 
the count of Flanders in the year 1127; and (d) a set of laws governing 
homage and fealty, written down in a compilation of the ordinances 
of Saint Louis (king of France, 1226-1270), but doubtless showing sub- 
stantially the practice in France for a long time before King Louis's day 

Sources — (a) L'Ancienne Coutume de Normandie ["The Old Custom ol 
Normandy"], Chap. 29. 

(b) Sir Thomas Lyttleton, Treatise of Tenures in French and 
English (London,. 1841), Bk. II., Chap. 2, p. 123. 

(c) Galbert de Bruges, De Multro, Traditione, et Occisione gloriosi 
Karoli comitis Flandriarum ["Concerning the Murder, Be- 
trayal, and Death of the glorious Charles, Count of Flanders"]. 
Text in Henri Pirenne, Histoire du Meurtre de Charles le Bon, 
comte de Flandre, par Galbert de Bruges (Paris, 1891). Trans- 
lated by Edward P. Cheyney in Univ. of Pa. Translations and 
Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 3, p. 18. 

(d) Les T^tablissements de Saint Louis ["The Ordinances of St. 
Louis "], Bk. II., Chap. 19. Textin Paul Viollet 'sedition (Paris, 
1881),Vol. II., pp. 395-398 

(a) 

Homage is a pledge to keep faith in respect to matters that are 

right and necessary, and to give counsel and aid. He who 

. „ would do homage ought to place his hands be- 

A Norman '^ *= ^ 

definition tween those of the man who is to be his lord, and 

speak these words: "I become your man, to keep 
faith with you against all others, saving my allegiance to the 
duke of Normandy." 



218 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

(b) 

And when a free tenant shall swear fealty to his lord, let him 
place his right hand on the book ^ and speak thus: "Hear thou 
this, my lord, that I will be faithful and loyal to you and will 
keep my pledges to you for the lands which I claim to hold of 
The oath you, and that I will loyally perform for you the 

of fealty services specified, so help me God and the saints." 

Then he shall kiss the book; but he shall not kneel when he 
swears fealty, nor take so humble a posture as is required in 
homage. 

(c) 

Through the whole remaining part of the day those who had 
been previously enfeoffed by the most pious count Charles, did 
homage to the count,^ taking up now again their fiefs and offices 
and whatever they had before rightfully and legitimately ob- 
tained. On Thursday, the seventh of April, homages were again 
made to the count, being completed in the following order of 
faith and security: 

First they did their homage thus. The count asked if he was 
willing to become completely his man, and the other replied. 
The rendering "^ ^"^ wilhng"; and with clasped hands, sur- 

of homage and rounded by the hands of the count, they were 
fealty to the , ^ , , , . ^ ,i , i , , 

count of Flan- bound together by a kiss. Secondly, he who had 

°^^^^ done homage gave his fealty to the representative 

of the count in these words, " I promise on my faith that I will 

in future be faithful to Count William, and will observe my 

homage to him completely, against all persons, in good faith and 

without deceit." Thirdly, he took his oath to this upon the 

relics of the saints. Afterwards, with a little rod which the count 

held in his hand, he gave investitures to all who by this agree- 

1 The Bible. Sometimes only the Gospels were used. 

2 Charles, count of Flanders, had just died and had been succeeded by his 
son William. All persons who had received fiefs from the deceased count 
were now brought together to renew their homage and fealty to the new 
count. 



THE CEREMONIES OF HOMAGE AND FEALTY 219 

ment had given their security and homage and accompanying 
oath. 

(d) ' 

If any one would hold from a lord in fee, he ought to seek his 
lord within forty days. And if he does not do it within forty days, 
the lord may and ought to seize his fief for default of homage, 
and the things which are found there he should seize without 
compensation; and yet the vassal should be obliged to pay to 
his lord the redemption.^ When any one wishes to enter into 
the fealty of a lord, he ought to seek him, as we have said above, 
and should speak as follows: "Sir, I request you, as my lord, to 
An ordinance put me in your fealty and in your homage for 
homaffe and °" ^^ch. and such a thing situated in your fief, which 
fealty I have bought." And he ought to say from what 

man, and this one ought to be present and in the fealty of the 
lord ; ^ and whether it is by purchase or by escheat ^ or by in- 
heritance he ought to explain; and with his hands joined, to 
speak as follows: "Sir, I become your man and promise to you 
fealty for the future as my lord, towards all men who may live 
or die, rendering to you such service as the fief requires, making 
to you, your relief as you are the lord." And he ought to say 
whether for guardianship,'^ or as an escheat, or as an inheritance, 
or as a purchase. 

The lord should immediately reply to him: "And I receive 
you and take you as my man, and give you this kiss as a sign 
of faith, saving my right and that of others," according to the 
usage of the various districts. 



1 Such a case as this would be most apt to arise when a lord died and a 
vassal failed to renew his homage to the successor; or when a vassal died 
and his heir failed to do homage as was required. 

2 This law would apply also to a case where a man who is already a vassal 
of a lord should acquire from another vassal of the same lord some additional 
land and so become indebted to the lord for a new measure of fealty. 

3 Reversion to the original proprietor because of failure of heirs. 

■* Such land might be acquired for temporary use only i. e., for guardian- 
ship, during the absence or disability of its proprietor. 



220 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

37. The Mutual Obligations of Lords and Vassals 

The feudal relation was essentially one of contract involving recipro- 
cal relations between lord and vassal. In the following letter, written 
in the year 1020 by Bishop Fulbert of Chartres ^ to the duke of Aqui- 
taine, we find laid down the general principles which ought to govern 
the discharge of these mutual obligations. It is affirmed that there 
were six things that no loyal vassal could do, and these are enumerated 
and explained. Then comes the significant statement that these 
negative duties must be supplemented with positive acts for the service 
and support of the lord. What some of these acts were will appear in 
the extracts in § 38. Bishop Fulbert points out also that the lord is 
himself bound by feudal law not to do things detrimental to the safety, 
honor, or prosperity of his vassal. The letter is an admirable state- 
ment of the spirit of the feudal system at its best. Already by 1020 a 
considerable body of feudal customs having the force of law had come 
into existence and it appears that Fulbert had made these customs the 
subject of some special study before answering the questions addressed 
to him by Duke William. 

Source — Text in Martin Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la 
i^rance [" Collection of the Historians of Gaul and of France "J, 
Vol. X., p. 463. 

To William, most illustrious duke of the Aquitanians, Bishop 
Fulbert, the favor of his prayers: 

Requested to write something regarding the character of 
fealty, I have set down briefly for you, on the authority of the 
books, the following things. He who takes the oath of fealty to 
What the vas- ^^^ ^^^^ ought always to keep in mind these six 
sal owes the things: what is harmless, safe, honorable, useful, 
easy, and practicable.^ Harmless, which means 
that he ought not to injure his lord in his body; safe, that he 
should not injure him by betraying his confidence or the de- 
fenses upon which he depends for security; honorable, that he 

1 Chartres was somewhat less than twenty miles southwest of Paris. 

2 The terms used in the original are incolume, tutum, honestum, utile, facile, 
et possibile. 



THE MORE IMPORTANT RIGHTS OF THE LORD 221 

should not injure him in his justice, or in other matters that re- 
late to his honor; useful, that he should not injure him in his 
property; easy, that he should not make difficult that which his 
lord can do easily; and 'practicable, that he should not make 
impossible for the lord that which is possible. 

However, while it is proper that the faithful vassal avoid these 
injuries, it is not for doing this alone that he deserves his hold- 
ing: for it is not enough to refrain from wrongdoing, unless that 
which is good is done also. It remains, therefore, that in the 
same six things referred to above he should faithfully advise and 
aid his lord, if he wishes to be regarded as worthy of his benefice 
and to be safe concerning the fealty which he has sworn. 

The lord also ought to act toward his faithful vassal in the 
same manner in all these things. And if he fails to do this, he 
The oblie-a- ^^^^ ^® rightfully regarded as guilty of bad faith, 
tions of the just as the former, if he should be found shirk- 
ing, or willing to shirk, his obligations would be 
perfidious and perjured.^ 

I should have written to you at greater length had I not been 
busy with many other matters, including the rebuilding of our 
city and church, which were recently completely destroyed by 
a terrible fire. Though for a time we could not think of any- 
thing but this disaster, yet now, by the hope of God's comfort, 
and of yours also, we breathe more freely again. 

38. Some of the More Important Rights of the Lord 

The obligations of vassals to lords outlined in the preceding selection 
were mainly of a moral character — such as naturally grew out of the 
general idea of loyalty and fidelity to a benefactor. They were largely 

1 In the English customary law of the twelfth century we read that, "it 
is allowable to any one, without punishment, to support his lord if anyone 
assails him, and to obey him in all legitimate ways, except in theft, murder, 
and in all such things as are not conceded to any one to do and are reckoned 
infamous by the laws;" also that, "the lord ought to do likewise equally 
with counsel and aid, and he may come to his man's assistance in his vicissi- 
tudes in all ways." — Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes, Vol. I., p. 590. 



222 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

negative and were rather vague and indefinite. So far as they went, 
they were binding upon lords and vassals alike. There were, however, 
several very definite and practical rights which the lords possessed with 
respect to the property and persons of their dependents. Some of these 
were of a financial character, some were judicial, and others were 
military. Five of the most important are illustrated by the passages 
given below. 

(a) Aids 

Under the feudal system the idea prevailed that the vassal's purse 
as well as his body was to be at the lord's service. Originally the 
right to draw upon his vassals for money was exercised by the lord 
whenever he desired, but by custom this ill-defined power gradually 
became limited to three sorts of occasions when the need of money 
was likely to be especially urgent, i. e., when the eldest son was knighted, 
when the eldest daughter was married, and when the lord was to be 
ransomed from captivity. In the era of the crusades, the starting of 
the lord on an expedition to the Holy Land was generally regarded as 
another emergency in which an aid might rightfully be demanded. 
The following extract from the old customary law of Normandy repre- 
sents the practice in nearly all feudal Europe. 

Source — L'Ancienne Coutume de Normandie, Chap. 35. 

In Normandy there are three chief aids. The first is to help 
make the lord's eldest son a knight; the second is to marry his 
eldest daughter; the third is to ransom the body of the lord 
from prison when he shall be taken captive during a war for the 
The three duke.^ By this it appears that the aide de cheva- 

^i^s lerie [knighthood-aid] is due when the eldest son 

of the lord is made a knight. The eldest son is he who has the 
dignity of primogeniture.^ The aide de mariage [marriage-aid] is 

1 The duke of Normandy. Outside of Normandy, of course, other feudal 
princes would be substituted. 

2 It was the feudal system that first gave the eldest son in France a real 
superiority over his brothers. This may be seen most clearly in the change 
wrought by feudalism whereby the old Frankish custom of allowing all the 
sons to inherit their father's property equally was replaced by the mediaeval 
rule of primogeniture (established by the eleventh century) under which the 
younger sons were entirely, or almost entirely, excluded from the inheritance. 



THE MORE IMPORTANT RIGHTS OF THE LORD 223 

due when the eldest daughter is married. The aide de ranfon 
[ransom-aid] is due when it is necessary to deliver the lord from 
the prisons of the enemies of the duke. These aids are paid in 
some fiefs at the rate of half a relief, and in some at the rate of 
a third. -^ 

(b) Military Service 

From whatever point of view feudalism is regarded — whether as a 
system of land tenure, as a form of social organization, or as a type of 
government — the military element in it appears everywhere important. 
The feudal period was the greatest era of war the civilized world has 
ever known. Few people between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, 
except in the peasant classes, were able to live out their lives entirely 
in peace. Of greatest value to kings and feudal magnates, greater even 
than money itself, was a goodly following of soldiers ; hence the almost 
universal requirement of military service by lords from their vassals. 
Fiefs were not infrequently granted out for no other purpose than to 
get the military service which their holders would owe. The amount 
of such service varied greatly in different times and places, but the 
following arrangement represents the most common practice. 

Source — Les Etahlissements de Saint Louis, Bk. I., Chap. 65. Text in Paul 
Viollet's edition (Paris, 1881), Vol. II., pp. 95-96. 

The baron and the vassals of the king ought to appear in his 
army when they shall be summoned, and ought to serve at their 
own expense for forty days and forty nights, with whatever num- 
ber of knights they owe.^ And he possesses the right to exact 
The conditions ^^^^ them these services when he wishes and 

of military ser- when he has need of them. If, however, the king 
vice 

shall wish to keep them more than forty days and 

forty nights at their own expense, they need not remain unless 

1 Relief is the term used to designate the payment made to the lord by 
the son of the deceased vassal before taking up the inheritance [see p. 22.5]. 
The "custom" says that sometimes the amount paid as an aid to the lord 
was equal to half that paid as relief and sometimes it was only a third. 

2 The number of men brought by a vassal to the royal army depended 
on the value of his fief and the character of his feudal contract. Greater 
vassals often appeared with hundreds of followers. 



224 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

they desire.^ But if he shall wish to retain them at his cost for 
the defense of the kingdom, they ought lawfully to remain. 
But if he shall propose to lead them outside of the kingdom, 
they need not go unless they are willing, for they have already 
served their forty days and forty nights. 

(p) Wardship and Marriage 

Very important among the special prerogatives of the feudal lord 
was his right to manage, and enjoy the profits of, fiefs inherited by 
minors. When a vassal died, leaving an heir who was under- age, the 
lord was charged with the care of the fief until the heir reached his or 
her majority. On becoming of age, a young man was expected to take 
control of his fief at once. But a young woman remained under ward- 
ship until her marriage, though if she married under age she could get 
possession of her fief immediately, just as she would had she waited 
until older. The control of the marriage of heiresses was largely in the 
hands of their lords, for obviously it was to the lord's interest that no 
enemy of his, nor any shiftless person, should become the husband of 
his ward. The lord could compel a female ward to marry and could 
oblige her to accept as a husband one of the candidates whom he offered 
her; but it was usually possible for the woman to purchase exemption 
from this phase of his jurisdiction. After the thirteenth century the 
right of wardship gradually declined in France, though it long con- 
tinued in England. The following extract from the customs of Nor- 
mandy sets forth the typical feudal law on the subject. 

Source — L'Ancienne Coutume de Normandie, Chap. 33. 

Heirs should be placed in guardianship until they reach the 
age of twenty years; and those who hold them as wards should 

1 This provision rendered the ordinary feudal army much more inefficient 
than an army made up of paid soldiers. Under ordinary circumstances, 
when their forty days of service had expired, the feudal troops were free to 
go home, even though their doing so might force the king to abandon a 
siege or give up a costly campaign only partially completed. By the thir- 
teenth century it had become customary for the king to accept extra money 
payments instead of military service from his vassals. With the revenues 
thus obtained, soldiers could be hired who made war their profession and 
who were willing to serve indefinitely. 



THE MORE IMPORTANT RIGHTS OF THE LORD 225 

give over to them all the fiefs which came under their control 
by reason of wardship, provided they have not lost anything by 
judicial process. . . . When the heirs pass out of the con- 
dition of wardship, their lords shall not impose upon them any 
reliefs for their fiefs, for the profits of wardship shall be reckoned 
in place of the relief. 

When a female ward reaches the proper age to marry, she 
should be married by the advice and consent of her lord, and by 
•pv,«» ,v,orr;orro the advice and consent of her relatives and 

XX16 lUclxxlcl^c 

of a female friends, according as the nobility of her an- 

cestry and the value of her fief may require; and 
upon her marriage the fief which has been held in guardianship 
should be given over to her. A woman cannot be freed from 
wardship except by marriage; and let it not be said that she is 
of age until she is twenty years old. But if she be married at 
the age at which it is allowable for a woman to marry,. the fact of 
her marriage makes her of age and delivers her fief from wardship. 
The fiefs of those who are under wardship should be cared 
for attentively by their lords, who are entitled to receive the 
The lord's ob- produce and profits.^ And in this connection let 
f(M-\he\ef*oT^ ^t ^^ known that the lord ought to preserve in 
his ward their former condition the buildings, the manor- 

houses, the forests and meadows, the gardens, the ponds, the 
mills, the fisheries, and the other things of which he has the profits. 
And he should not sell, destroy, or remove the woods, the houses, 
or the trees. 

(d) Reliefs 

A relief was a payment made to the lord by an heir before entering 
upon possession of his fief. The history of reliefs goes back to the time 
when benefices were not hereditary and when, if a son succeeded his 
father in the usufruct of a piece of property, it was regarded as an un- 

1 Every fief-holder was supposed to render some measure of military 
service. As neither a minor nor a woman could do this personally, it was 
natural that the lord should make up for the deficiency by appropriating 
the produce of the estate during the period of wardship. 

Med. Hist.— 15 



226 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

usual thing — a special favor on the part of the owner to be paid for by 
the new tenant. Later, when fiefs had become almost everywhere 
hereditary, the custom of requiring reliefs still survived. The amount 
was at first arbitrary, being arranged by individual bargains; but in 
every community, especially in France, the tendency was toward a fixed 
custom regarding it. Below are given some brief extracts from English 
Treasury records which show how men in England between the years 
1140 and 1230 paid the king for the privilege of retaining the fiefs held 
by their fathers. 

Source — Thomas Madox, History and Antiquities of the Exchequer of the 
Kings of England (London, 1769), Vol. I., pp. 312-322 passim. 

Walter Halt renders an account of 5 marks of silver for the 
relief of the land of his father. 

Walter Brito renders an acco'unt of £66, 13s. and 4d. for the 
relief of his land. 

Richard of Estre renders an account of £15 for the relief for 
3 knights' fees which he holds from the honor of Mortain. 

Walter Fitz Thomas, of Newington, owes 28s. 4d. for having 
a fourth part of one knight's fee which had been seized into the 
hand of the king for default of relief. 

John of Venetia renders an account of 300 marks for the fine 
of his land and for the relief of the land which was his father's 
which he held from the king in capite} 

John de Balliol owes £150 for the relief of 30 knights' fees 
which Hugh de Balliol, his father, held from the king in ca'pite, 
that is 100s. for each fee. 

Peter de Bruce renders an account of £100 for his relief for 
the barony which was of Peter his father. 

(e) Forfeiture 

The lord's most effective means of compelling his vassals to dis- 
charge their obligations was his right to take back their fiefs for breach 
of feudal contract. Such a breach, or felony, as it was technically 

1 Tenants in capite in England were those who held their land by direct 
royal grant. 



THE MORE IMPORTANT RIGHTS OF THE LORD 227 

called, might consist in refusal to render military service or the required 
aids, ignoring the sovereign authority of the lord, levying war against 
the lord, dishonoring members of the lord's family, or, as in the case 
below, refusing to obey the lord's summons to appear in court. In 
practice the lords generally found it difficult to enforce the penalty of 
forfeiture and after the thirteenth century the tendency was to sub- 
stitute money fines for dispossession, except in the most aggravated 
cases. The following is an account of the condemnation of Arnold 
Atton, a nobleman of south France, by the feudal court of Raymond, 
count of Toulouse, in the year 1249. The penalty imposed was the 
loss of the valuable chateau of Auvillars, 

Source — Teulet, Layettes du Tresor des Cartes [" Bureau of Treasury 
Accounts "i, No. 3778, Vol. III., p. 70. Translated by Edward P. 
Cheyney in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV., 
No. 3. pp. 33-34. 

Raymond, by the grace of God count of Toulouse, marquis of 
Provence, to the nobleman Arnold Atton, viscount of Lomagne, 
greeting : 

Let it be known to your nobility by the tenor of these presents 
what has been done in the matter of the complaints which we 
have made about you before the court of Agen; that you have 
not taken the trouble to keep or fulfill the agreements sworn by 
you to us, as is more fully contained in the instrument drawn up 
there, sealed with our seal by the public notary; and that you 
have refused contemptuously to appear before the said court for 
the purpose of doing justice, and have otherwise committed 
multiplied and great delinquencies against us. As your faults 
The court's have required, the aforesaid court of Agen has 
sentence upon unanimously and concordantly pronounced sen- 
tence against you, and for these matters have 
condemned you to hand over and restore to us the chateau of 
Auvillars and all that land which you hold from us in fee, to be 
had and held by us by right of the obligation by which you have 
bound it to us for fulfilling and keeping the said agreements. 

Likewise it has declared that we are to be put into possession 



228 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

of the said land and that it is to be handed over to us, on account 
of your contumacy, because you have not been willing to appear 
before the same court on the days which were assigned to you. 
Moreover, it has declared that you shall be held and required 
to restore the said land in whatsoever way we wish to receive it, 
with few or many, in peace or in anger, in our own person, by 
right of lordship. Likewise it has declared that you shall re- 
store to us all the expenses which we have incurred, or the court 
itself has incurred, on those days which were assigned to you, 
or because of those days, and has condemned you to repay these 
to us.^ 

Moreover, it has declared that the nobleman Gerald d'Armag- 
nac, whom you hold captive, you shall liberate, and deliver him 
free to us. W,e demand, moreover, by right of our lordship that 
you liberate him. 

We call, therefore, upon your discretion in this matter, strictly 
enjoining you and commanding that you obey the aforesaid 
sentences in all things and fulfill them in all respects and in no 
way delay the execution of them. 

39. The Peace and the Truce of God 

War rather than peace was the normal condition of feudal society. 
Peasants were expected to settle their disputes in the courts of law, 
but lords and seigneurs possessed a legal right to make war upon their 
enemies and were usually not loath to exercise it. Private warfare was 
indeed so common that it all the time threatened seriously the lives and 
property of the masses of the people and added heavily to the afflic- 
tions which flood, drought, famine, and pestilence brought repeatedly 
upon them. The first determined efforts to limit, if not to abolish, 
the ravages of private war were made by the Church, partly because 

1 Apparently the king's court had been assembled several times to con- 
sider the charges against Viscount Atton, but had been prevented from 
taking action because of the latter's failure to appear. At last the court 
decided that it was useless to delay longer and proceeded to condemn the 
guilty noble and send him a statement of what had been done. He was not 
only to lose his chateau of Auvillars but also to reimburse the king -for the 
expenses which the court had incurred on his account. 



THE PEACE AND THE TRUCE OP GOD 229 

the Church itself often suffered by reason of them, partly because its 
ideal was that of peace and security, and partly because it recognized 
its duty as the protector of the poor and oppressed. Late in the tenth 
century, under the influence of the Cluniacs [see p. 245], the clergy of 
France, both secular and regular, began in their councils to promulgate 
decrees which were intended to establish what was known as the Peace 
of God. These decrees, which were enacted by so many councils between 
989 and 1050 that they came to cover pretty nearly all France, proclaimed 
generally that any one who should use violence toward women, peasants, 
merchants, or members of the clergy should be excommunicated. The 
principle was to exempt certain classes of people from the operations 
of war and violence, even though the rest of the population should 
continue to fight among themselves. It must be said that these de- 
crees, though enacted again and again, had often little apparent effect. 

Effort was then made in another direction. From about 1027 the 
councils began to proclaim what was known as the Truce of God, 
sometimes alone and sometimes in connection with the Peace. The 
purport of the Truce of God was that all men should abstain from war- 
fare and violence during a certain portion of each week, and during 
specified church festivals and holy seasons. At first only Sunday was 
thus designated ; then other days, until the time from Wednesday night 
to Monday morning was all included; then extended periods, as Lent, 
were added, until finally not more than eighty days remained of the 
entire year on which private warfare was allowable. As one writer has 
stated it, "the Peace of God was intended to protect certain classes 
at all times and the Truce to protect all classes at certain times." It 
was equally difficult to secure the acquiescence of the lawless nobles 
in both, and though the efforts of the Church were by no means without 
result, we are to think of private warfare as continuing quite common 
until brought gradually to an end by the rise of strong monarchies, 
by the turning of men to commerce and trade, and by the drawing off 
of military energies into foreign and international wars. 

The decree given below, which combines features of both the Peace 
and the Truce, was issued by the Council of Toulouges (near Perpignan) 
in 1041, or, as some scholars think, in 1065. Its substance was many 
times reenacted, notably by the Council of Clermont, in 1095, upon the 
occasion of the proclamation of the first Crusade. It should have pro- 



230 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

cured about 240 days of peace in every year and reduced war to about 
120 days, but, like the others, it was only indifferently observed. 

Source — Text in Martin Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la 
France ["Collection of the Historians of Gaul and of France"], 
Paris, 1876, Vol. XI., pp. 510-511. 

1. This Peace has been confirmed by the bishops, by the 
abbots, by the counts and viscounts and the other God-fearing 
nobles in this bishopric, to the effect that in the future, beginning 
vi^ith this day, no man may commit an act of violence in a church, 
Acts of vio- or in the space which surrounds it and which 
den in or near ^^ covered by its privileges, or in the burying- 
churches ground, or in the dwelling-houses which are, or 
may be, within thirty paces of it. 

2. We do not include in this measure the churches which have 
been, or which shall be, fortified as chateaux, or those in which 
plunderers and thieves are accustomed to store their ill-gotten 
booty, or which give them a place of refuge. Nevertheless we 
desire that such churches be under this protection until com- 
plaint of them shall be made to the bishop, or to the chapter. 
If the bishop or chapter ^ act upon such information and lay hold 
of the malefactors, and if the latter refuse to give themselves up to 
the justice of the bishop or chapter, the malefactors and all their 
possessions shall not be immune, even within the church. A 
man who breaks into a church, or into the space within thirty 
paces around it, must pay a fine for sacrilege, and double this 
amount to the person wronged. 

3. Furthermore, it is forbidden that any one attack the clergy, 

who do not bear arms, or the monks and religious persons, or do 

, ^^ , them any wrong ; likewise it is forbidden to despoil 

Attacks upon j & > r- 

the clergy or pillage the communities of canons, monks, and 

religious persons, the ecclesiastical lands which 

are under the protection of the Church, or the clergy, who do not 

1 The chapter was the body of clergy attached to a cathedral church. 
Its members were known as canons. 



THE PEACE AND THE TRUCE OF GOD 231 

bear arms; and if any one shall do such a thing, let him pay a 
double composition.^ 

5. Let no one burn or destroy the dwellings of the peasants 
and the clergy, the dove-cotes and the granaries. Let no man 
dare to kill, to beat, or to wound a peasant or serf, or the wife of 
either, or to seize them and carry them off, except for misde- 
meanors which they may have committed ; but it is not forbidden 
p . to lay hold of them in order to bring them to 
tended to the justice, and it is allowable to do this even before 

they shall have been summoned to appear. Let 
not the raiment of the peasants be stolen; let not their ploughs, 
or their hoes, or their olive-fields be burned. 

6. . . . Let any one who has broken the peace, and has 
not paid his fines within a fortnight, make amends to him whom 
he has injured by paying a double amount, which shall go to the 
bishop and to the count who shall have had charge of the case. 

7. The bishops of whom we have spoken have solemnly con- 
firmed the Truce of God, which has been enjoined upon all 
Th Tr Christians, from the setting of the sun of the 
of God con- fourth day of the week, that is to say, Wednesday, 

until the rising of the sun on Monday, the second 
day. ... If any one during the Truce shall violate it, let 
him pay a double composition and subsequently undergo the 
ordeal of cold water.^ When any one during the Truce shall kill 
p ,.. „ a man, it has been ordained, with the approval of 

violations of all Christians, that if the crime was committed 

intentionally the murderer shall be condemned to 
perpetual exile, but if it occurred by accident the slayer shall 
be banished for a period of time to be fixed by the bishops and 

1 That is, the penalty for using violence against peaceful churchmen, or 
despoiling their property was to be twice that demanded by the law in case 
of similar offenses committed against laymen. 

2 The ordeal of cold water was designed to test a man's guilt or inno- 
cence. The accused person was thrown into a pond and if he sank he was 
considered innocent; if he floated, guilty, on the supposition that the pure 
water would refuse to receive a person tainted with crime [see p. 200]. 



232 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 

the canons. If any one during the Truce shall attempt to seize 
a man or to carry him off from his chateau, and does not suc- 
ceed in his purpose, let him pay a fine to the bishop and to the 
chapter, just as if he had succeeded. It is likewise forbidden 
during the Truce, in Advent and Lent, to build any chateau 
or fortification, unless it was begun a fortnight before the 
time of the Truce. It has been ordained also that at all times 
disputes and suits on the subject of the Peace and Truce of God 
shall be settled before the bishop and his chapter, and likewise 
for the peace of the churches which have before been enumer- 
ated. When the bishop and the chapter shall have pronounced 
sentences to recall men to the observance of the Peace and the 
Truce of God, the sureties and hostages who show themselves 
hostile to the bishop and the chapter shall be excommunicated 
by the chapter and the bishop, with their protectors and par- 
tisans, as guilty of violating the Peace and the Truce of the 
Lord; they and their possessions shall be excluded from the 
Peace and the Truce of the Lord. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

40. The Battle of Hastings : the English and the Normans 

The Northmen, under the leadership of the renowned Rollo, got 
their first permanent foothold in that important part of France since 
known as Normandy in the year 911 [see p. 171]. Almost from the 
beginning the new county (later duchy) increased rapidly both in 
territorial extent and in political influence. The Northmen, or Nor- 
mans, were a vigorous, ambitious, and on the whole very capable people, 
and they needed only the polishing which peaceful contact with the 
French could give to make them one of the most virile elements in the 
population of western Europe. They gave up their old gods and ac- 
cepted Christianity, ceased to speak their own language and began the 
use of French, and to a considerable extent became ordinary soldiers 
and traders instead of the Avild pirates their forefathers had been. The 
spirit of unrest, however, and the love of adventure so deeply ingrained 
in their natures did not die out, and we need not be surprised to learn 
that they continued still to enjoy nothing quite so much as war, es- 
pecially if it involved hazardous expeditions across seas. Some went 
to help the Christians of Spain against the Saracens; some went to aid 
the Eastern emperors against the Turks; others went to Sicily and 
southern Italy, where they conquered weak rulers and set up princi- 
palities of their own ; and finally, under the leadership of Duke William 
the Bastard, in 1066, they entered upon the greatest undertaking of all, 
i. e., the conquest of England and the establishment of a Norman 
chieftain upon the throne of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. 

Duke AVilliam was one of the greatest and most ambitious feudal 
lords of France — more powerful really than the French king himself. 
He had overcome practically all opposition among his unruly vassals 
in Normandy, and by 1066, when the death of King Edward the Con- 
fessor occurred in England, he was ready to engage in great enterprises 

233 



234 THE NOEMAN CONQUEST 

which gave promise of enhanced power and renown. He had long 
cherished a claim to the English throne, and when he learned that in 
utter disregard of this claim the English witan had chosen Harold, 
son of the West Saxon Earl Godwin, to be Edward's successor, he pre- 
pared to invade the island kingdom and force an acknowledgment of 
what he pretended at least to believe were his rights. Briefly stated, 
William claimed the English throne on the ground (1) that through his 
wife Matilda, a descendant of Emma, Edward the Confessor's mother, 
he was a nearer heir than was Harold, who was only the late king's 
brother-in-law; (2) that on the occasion of a visit to England in 1051 
Edward had promised him the inheritance ; and (3) that Harold him- 
self, when some years before he had been shipwrecked on the coast of 
Normandy, had sworn on sacred relics to help him gain the crown. 
There is some doubt as to the actual facts in connection with both of 
these last two points, but the truth is that all of William's claims taken 
together were not worth much, since the recognized principle of the 
English government was that the king should be chosen by the wisemen, 
or witan. Harold had been so chosen and hence was in every way the 
legitimate sovereign. 

William, however, was determined to press his claims and, after 
obtaining the blessing of the ' Pope (Alexander II.), he gathered 
an army of perhaps 65,000 Normans and adventurers from all 
parts of France and prepared a fleet of some 1,500 transports at the 
mouth of the Dive to carry his troops across the Channel. Septem- 
ber 28, 1066, the start was made and the following day the host landed 
at Pevensey in Sussex. Friday, the 29th, Hastings was selected and 
fortified to serve as headquarters. The English were taken at great dis- 
advantage. Only two days before the Normans crossed the Channel 
Harold with all the troops he could muster had been engaged in a great 
battle at Stamford Bridge, in Northumberland, with Harold Hardrada, 
king of Norway, who was making an independent invasion. The Eng- 
lish had won the fight, but they were not in a position to meet the 
Normans as they might otherwise have been. With admirable energy, 
however, Harold marched his weary army southward to Senlac, a hill 
near the town of Hastings, and there took up his position to await an 
attack by the duke's army. The battle came on Saturday, October 14, 
and after a very stubborn contest, in which Harold was slain, it re- 



THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 235 

suited in a decisive victory for the Normans. Thereafter the conquest 
of the entire kingdom, while by no means easy, was inevitable. 

William of IMalmesbury, from whose Chronido of the Kings of England 
our account of the battle and of the two contending peoples is taken, was 
a Benedictine monk, born of a Norman father and an English mother. 
He lived about 1095-1150 and hence wrote somewhat over half a cen- 
tury after the Conquest. While thus not strictly a contemporary, he 
was a man of learning and discretion and there is every reason to believe 
that he made his history as accurate as he was able, with the materials 
at his command. His parentage must have enabled him to understand 
both combatants in an unusual degree and, though his sympathies were 
with the conquerors, we may take his characterizations of Saxon and 
Norman alike to be at least fairly reliable. His Chronicle covers the 
period. 449-1135, and for the years after 1066 it is the fullest, most 
carefully written, and most readable account of English affairs that we 
have. 



Source — Guilielmus Monachi Malmesburiensis, De gestis regum Anglorum 
[William of Malmesbury, "Chronicle of the Kings of England"], 
Bk. III. Adapted from translation by John Sharpe (London, 
1815), pp. 317-323. 

The courageous leaders mutually prepared for battle, each 
according, to his national custom. The English passed the night ^ 
without sleep, in drinking and singing, and in the morning pro- 
ceeded without delay against the enemy. All on foot, armed 
with battle-axes, and covering themselves in front by joining 
How the Enff- ^^^^^ shields, they formed an impenetrable body 
lish prepared which would assuredly have secured their safety 
that day had not the Normans, by a pretended 
flight, induced them to open their ranks, which until that time, 
according to their custom, had been closely knit together. 
King Harold himself, on foot, stood with his brothers near the 
standard in order that, so long as all shared equal danger, none 
could think of retreating. This same standard William sent, 
after his victory, to the Pope. It was richly embroidered with 
1 Friday night, October 13. 



236 THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

gold and precious stones, and represented the figure of a man 
fighting. 

On the other hand, the Normans passed the whole night in 
confessing their sins, and received the communion of the Lord's 
body in the morning. Their infantry, with bows and arrows, 
formed the vanguard, while their cavalry, divided into wings, 
How the Nor- was placed in the rear. The duke, with serene 
mans prepared countenance, declaring aloud that God would 
favor his as being the righteous side, called for his arms; and 
when, through the haste of his attendants, he had put on his 
hauberk ^ the rear part before, he corrected the mistake with a 
laugh, saying, ''The power of my dukedom shall be turned into 
a kingdom." Then starting the song of Roland,^ in order that 
the warlike example of that hero might stimulate the soldiers, 
and calling on God for assistance, the battle commenced on both 
sides, and was fought with great ardor, neither side yielding 
ground during the greater part of the day. 

Observing this, William gave a signal to his troops, that, 
pretending flight, they should withdraw from the field. ^ By 
means of this device the solid phalanx of the English opened for 
the purpose of cutting down the fleeing enemy and thus brought 
upon itself swift destruction; for the Normans, facing about, 
William's attacked them, thus disordered, and compelled 

stratagem them to fly. In this manner, deceived by strata- 

gem, they met an honorable death in avenging their country; 

1 A long coat of mail made of interwoven metal rings. 

2 Roland, count of Brittany, was slain at the pass of Roncesvalles in the 
famous attack of the Gascons upon Charlemagne's retreating army in 778. 
One of the chronicles says simply, "In this battle Roland, count of Brittany, 
was slain," and we have absolutely no other historical knowledge of the 
man. His career was taken up by the singers of the Middle Ages, however, 
and employed to typify all that was brave and daring and romantic. It 
was some one of the many "songs of Roland" that William used at Hastings 
to stimulate his men. 

3 In a battle so closely contested this was a dangerous stratagem and its 
employment seems to indicate that William despaired of defeating the 
English by direct attack. His main object, in which he was altogether suc- 
cessful, was to entice the English into abandoning their advantageous posi- 
tion on the hilltop. 



THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 237 

nor indeed were they at all without their own revenge, for, by 
frequently making a stand, they slaughtered their pursuers in 
heaps. Getting possession of a higher bit of ground, they drove 
back the Normans, who in the heat of pursuit were struggling up 
the slope, into the valley beneath, where, by hurling their jave- 
lins and rolling down stones on them as they stood below, the 
English easily destroyed them to a man. Besides, by a short 
passage with which they were acquainted, they avoided a deep 
ditch and trod underfoot such a multitude of their enemies in 
that place that the heaps of bodies made the hollow level with 
the plain. This alternating victory, first of one side and then 
of the other, continued as long as Harold lived to check the re- 
treat; but when he fell, his brain pierced by an arrow, the flight 
of the English ceased not until night. ^ 

In the battle both leaders distinguished themselves by their 
bravery. Harold, not content with the duties of a general and 
with exhorting others, eagerly assumed himself the work of a 
common soldier. He was constantly striking down the enemy 
The valor at close quarters, so that no one could approach 

of Harold j^jj^ with impunity, for straightway both horse 

and rider would be felled by a single blow. So it was at long 
range, as I have said, that the enemy's deadly arrow brought 
him to his death. One of the Norman soldiers gashed his thigh 
with a sword, as he lay prostrate; for which shameful and cow- 
ardly action he was branded with ignominy by William and 
expelled from the army. 

William, too, was equally ready to encourage his soldiers by 
his voice and by his presence, and to be the first to rush forward 
to attack the thickest of the foe. He was everywhere fierce and 
furious. He lost three choice horses, which were that day killed 

1 After the Norman victory was practically assured, William sought to 
bring the battle to an end by having his archers shoot into the air, that their 
arrows might fall upon the group of soldiers, including the king, who were 
holding out in defense of the English standard. It was xin this way that 
Harold was mortally wounded; he died immediately from the blows in- 
flicted by Norman knights at close hand. 



238 THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

under him. The dauntless spirit and vigor of the intrepid gen- 
eral, however, still held out. Though often called back by the 
William's brav- thoughtful remonstrance of his bodyguard, he 
ery and ardor g^^jj persisted until approaching night crowned him 
with complete victory. And no doubt the hand of God so pro- 
tected him that the enemy could draw no blood from his person, 
though they aimed so many javelins at him. 

This was a fatal day to England, and melancholy havoc was 
wrought in our dear country during the change of its lords. ^ 
For it had long before adopted the manners of the Angles, which 
had indeed altered with the times; for in the first years of their 
arrival they were barbarians in their look and manner, warlike 
in their usages, heathen in their rites. 

After embracing the faith of Christ, by degrees and, in process 
of time, in consequence of the peace which they enjoyed, they 
consigned warfare to a secondary place and gave their whole 
attention to religion. I am not speaking of the poor, the mean- 
ness of whose fortune often restrains them from overstepping 
the bounds of justice; I omit, too, men of eccle- 
of the Saxons siastical rank, whom sometimes respect for their 

before the Con- profession and sometimes the fear of shame 
quest ^ 

suffers not to deviate from the true path; I speak 

of princes, who from the greatness of their power might have 
full liberty to indulge in pleasure. Some of these in their own 
country, and others at Rome, changing their habit, obtained a 
heavenly kingdom and a saintly fellowship. Many others dur- 
ing their whole lives devoted themselves in outward appearance 
to worldly affairs, but in order that they might expend their 
treasures on the poor or divide them amongst monasteries. 

1 The victory at Hastings did not at once make William king, but it 
revealed to both himself and the English people that the crown was easily 
within his grasp. After the battle he advanced past London into the in- 
terior of the country. Opposition melted before him and on Christmas 
day, 1066, the Norman duke, having already been regularly elected by the 
witan, was crowned at London by the archbishop of York. In the early 
years of his reign he succeeded in making his power recognized in the more 
turbulent north. 



THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 239 

What shall I say of the multitudes of bishops, hermits, and 
abbots? Does not the whole island blaze with such numerous 
relics of its own people that you can scarcely pass a village of 
any consequence without hearing the name of some new saint? 
And of how many more has all remembrance perished through 
the want of records? 

Nevertheless, the attention to literature and religion had 
gradually decreased for several years before the arrival of the 
Normans. The clergy, contented with a little confused learn- 
ing, could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments; 
and a person who understood grammar was an object of wonder 
and astonishment.^ The monks mocked the rule of their order 

■o X J 1- by fine vestments and the use of every kind of 
Recent decline -^ -^ 

of learning and food. The nobility, given up to luxury and 
wantonness, went not to church in the morning 
after the manner of Christians, but merely, in a careless manner, 
heard matins and masses from a hurrying priest in their cham- 
bers, amid the blandishments of their wives. The community, 
left unprotected, became a prey to the most powerful, who 
amassed fortunes, either by seizing on their property or by sell- 
ing their persons into foreign countries; although it is character- 
istic of this people to be more inclined to reveling than to the 
accumulation of wealth. 

Drinking in parties was an universal practice, in which occu- 
pation they passed entire nights as well as days. They con- 
sumed their whole substance in mean and despicable houses, 
unlike the Normans and French, who live frugally in noble and 
splendid mansions. The vices attendant on drunkenness, which 
enervate the human mind, followed; hence it came about that 
when they resisted William, with more rashness and precipitate 
fury than military skill, they doomed themselves and their 
country to slavery by a single, and that an easy, victory.^ For 

1 The work of Alfred had not been consistently followed up during the 
century and a half since his death [see p. 185]. 

2 The conquest of England by the Normans was really far from an en- 



240 THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

nothing is less effective than rashness; and what begins with 
violence quickly ceases or is repelled. The English at that time 
Th Ena-lish wore short garments, reaching to the mid-knee; 
people de- they had their hair cropped, their beards shaven, 

their arms laden with golden bracelets, their skin 
adorned with tattooed designs. They were accustomed to eat 
until they became surfeited, and to drink until they were sick. 
These latter qualities they imparted to their conquerors; as for 
the rest, they adopted their manners. I would not, however, 
have these bad characteristics ascribed to the English univer- 
sally; I know that many of the clergy at that day trod the path 
of sanctity by a blameless life. I know that many of the laity, 
of all ranks and conditions, in this nation were well-pleasing to 
God. Be injustice far from this account; the accusation does "not 
involve the whole, indiscriminately. But as in peace the mercy 
of God often cherishes the bad and the good together, so, equally, 
does His severity sometimes include them both in captivity. 

The Normans — that I may speak of them also — were at that 
time, and are even now, exceedingly particular in their dress 
and delicate in their food, but not so to excess. They are a race 
accustomed to war, and can hardly live without it ; fierce in rush- 
ing against the enemy, and, where force fails to succeed, ready 
. , ... to use stratagem or to corrupt by bribery. As 
of the Nor- I have said, they live in spacious houses with 

economy, envy their superiors, wish to excel their 
equals, and plunder their subjects, though they defend them 
from others; they are faithful to their lords, though a slight 
offense alienates them. They weigh treachery by its chance of 
success, and change their sentiments for money. The most 
hospitable, however, of all nations, they esteem strangers worthy 
of equal honor with themselves; they also intermarry with their 
vassals. They revived, by their arrival, the rule of religion 

slavement. Norman nile was strict, but hardly more so than conditions 

warranted. 



WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AS MAN AND AS KING 241 

which had everywhere grown hfeless in England.^ You might 
see churches rise in every village, and monasteries in the towns 
and cities, built after a style unknown before; you might behold 
the country flourishing with renewed rites; so that each wealthy 
man accounted that day lost to him which he had neglected to 
signalize by some beneficent act. 

41. William the Conqueror as Man and as Bang 

In the following passage, taken from the Saxon Chronicle, we have 
an interesting summary of the character of the Conqueror and of his 
conduct as king of England. Both the good and bad sides of the 
picture are clearly brought out and perhaps it is not quite easy to say 
which is given the greater i^rominence. On the one hand there is 
William's devotion to the Church, his establishment of peace and order, 
his mildness in dealing with all but those who Had antagonized him, 
and the virtue of his personal life ; on the other is his severity, rapac- 
ity, and pride, his heavy taxes and his harsh forest laws. As one writer 
says, "the Conquest was bad as well as. good for England; but the 
harm was only temporary, the good permanent." It is greatly to the 
credit of the English chronicler that he was able to deal so fairly with 
the character of one whom he had not a few patriotic reasons for ma- 
ligning. 

Source — The Saxon Chronicle. Translated by J. A. Giles (London, 1847), 
pp. 461-462. 

If any one would know what manner of man King William 

was, the glory that he obtained, and of how many lands he was 

lord, then will we describe him as we have known him, we who 

have looked upon him and who once lived at his court. This 

King William, of whom we are speaking, was a very wise and a 

great man, and more honored and more powerful than any of 

1 It seems to be true, as William of Malmesbury says, that the century 
preceding the Norman Conquest had been an era of religious as well as 
literary decline among the English. After 1066 the native clergy, ignorant 
and often grossly immoral, were gradually replaced by Normans, who on 
the whole were better men. By 1088 there remained only one bishop of 
English birth in the entire kingdom. One should be careful, however, not 
to exaggerate the moral differences between the two peoples. 

Med. Hist.— 16 



242 THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

his predecessors. He was mild to those good men who loved 
God, but severe beyond measure towards those who withstood 
William's his will. He founded a noble monastery on the 

religious zeal gp^^ where God permitted him to conquer Eng- 
land, and he established monks in it, and he made it very rich.^ 
In his days the great monastery at Canterbury was built ,^ and 
many others also throughout England; moreover, this land was 
filled with monks who lived after the rule of St. Benedict; and 
such was the state of religion in his days that all who would 
might observe that which was prescribed by their respective 
orders. 

King William was also held in much reverence. He wore his 
crown three times every year when he was in England : at Easter 
he wore it at Winchester,^ at Pentecost at Westminster,^ and at 
Christmas at Gloucester.^ And at these times all the men of 
His strong England were with him, archbishops, bishops, 

government abbots and earls, thanes ^ and knights.'^ So also 
was he a very stern and a wrathful man, so that none durst 
do anything against his will, and he kept in prison those earls 

1 The story goes that just before entering the battle of Hastings in 1066 
WilUam made a vow that if successful he would establish a monastery on 
the site where Harold's standard stood. The vow was fulfilled by the 
founding of the Abbey of St. Martin, or Battle Abbey, in the years 1070- 
1076. The monastery was not ready for consecration until 1094. 

2 Christchurch. This cathedral monastery had been organized before the 
Conqueror's day, but it was much increased in size and in importance by 
Lanfranc, William's archbishop of Canterbury; and the great building 
which it occupied in the later Middle Ages was constructed at this time. 

3 In Hampshire, in the southern part of the kingdom. 

4 In Middlesex, near London. 

5 On the Severn, in the modern county of Gloucester. 

6 A thane (or thegn) was originally a young warrior; then one who became 
a noble by serving the king in arms; then the possessor of five hides of land. 
A hide was a measure of arable ground varying in extent at the time of 
William the Conqueror, but by Henry II. 's reign (1154-1189) fixed at about 
100 acres. The thane before the Conquest occupied nearly the same position 
socially as the knight after it. 

7 This assembly of dignitaries, summoned by the king three times a year, 
was the so-called Great Council, which in Norman times superseded the 
old Saxon witan. Its duties were mainly judicial. It acted also as an ad- 
visory body, but the king was not obliged to consult it or to carry out its 
recommendations [see p. 307, note 2]. 



WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AS MAN AND AS KING 243 

who acted against his pleasure. He removed bishops from their 
sees ^ and abbots from their offices, and he imprisoned thanes, 
and at length he spared not his own brother Odo. This Odo was 
a very powerful bishop in Normandy. His see was that of 
Bayeux,^ and he was foremost to serve the king. He had an 
earldom in England, and when William was in Normandy he 
[Odo] was the first man in this country [England], and him did 
William cast into prison.^ 

Amongst other things, the good order that William established 
is not to be forgotten. It was such that any man, who was him- 
self aught, might travel over the kingdom with a bosom full of 
gold unmolested; and no man durst kill another, however great 
the injury he might have received from him. He reigned over 
England, and being sharp-sighted to his own interest, he sur- 
veyed the kingdom so thoroughly that there was not a single 
The extent of hide of land throughout the whole of which he 
his power knew not the possessor, and how much it was 

worth, and this he afterwards entered in his register.'* The land 
of the Britons [Wales] was under his sway, and he built castles 
therein; moreover he had full dominion over the Isle of Man; ^ 
Scotland also was subject to him, from his great strength; the 
land of Normandy was his by inheritance, and he possessed the 
earldom of Maine ;^ and had he lived two years longer, he would 
have subdued Ireland by his prowess, and that without a battle.'^ 

Truly there was much trouble in these times, and very great 

1 The see of a bishop is his ecclesiastical office; the area over which his 
authority extends is more properly known as his diocese. 

2 On the Orne River, near the English Channel. 

3 Odo, though a churchman, was a man of brutal instincts and evil char- 
acter. Through' his high-handed course, both as a leading ecclesiastical 
dignitary in Normandy and as earl of Kent and vicegerent in England, he 
gave William no small amount of trouble. The king finally grew tired of 
his brother's conduct and had him imprisoned in the town of Rouen where 
he was left for four years, or until the end of the reign (1087). 

4 This was the famous Domesday Survey, begun in 1085. 
" In the Irish Sea. 

6 Maine lay directly to the south of Normandy. 

7 This statement is doubtful, though it is true that Lanfranc made. a be- 
ginning by consecrating a number of bishops in Ireland. 



244 THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

distress. He caused castles to be built and oppressed the poor. 
The king was also of great sternness, and he took from his sub- 
jects many marks of gold, and many hundred pounds of silver, 
and this, either with or without right, and with little need. He 
was given to avarice, and greedily loved gain.^ He made large 
forests for the deer, and enacted laws therewith, so that whoever 
killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing 
His faults the deer, so also the boars; and he loved the tall 

as a ruler stags as if he were their father. He also com- 

manded concerning the hares, that they should go free.^ The 
rich complained and the poor murmured, but he was so sturdy 
that he recked nought of them; they must will all that the king 
willed, if they would live, or would keep their lands, or would hold 
their possessions, or would be maintained in their rights. Alas 
that any man should so exalt himself, and carry himself in his 
pride over all! May Almighty God show mercy to his soul, and 
grant him the forgiveness of his sins ! We have written concern- 
ing him these things, both good and bad, that virtuous men 
may follow after the good, and wholly avoid the evil, and 
may go in the way that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven. 

1 All of the early Norman kings were greedy for money and apt to bear 
heavily upon the people in their efforts to get it. Englishmen were not 
accustomed to general taxation and felt the new regime to be a serious 
burden. There was consequently much complaint, but, as our historian 
says, William was strong enough to be able to ignore it. 

2 Most of William's harsh measures can be justified on the groiuid that 
they were designed to promote the ultimate welfare of his people. This 
is not true, however, of his elaborate forest laws, which undertook to de- 
prive Englishmen of their accustomed freedom of hunting when and where 
they pleased. William's love of the chase amounted to a passion and he 
was not satisfied with merely enacting such stringent measures as that the 
slayer of a hart or a hind in his forests should be blinded, but also set apait 
a great stretch of additional country, the so-called New Forest, as his own 
exclusive hunting grounds. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE MONASTIC HEFORMATION OF THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, 
AND TWELFTH CENTURIES 

42. The Foundation Charter of the Monastery of Cluny (910) 

Throughout the earlier Middle Ages the Benedictine Rtile [see 
p. 83] was the code under which were governed practically all the 
monastic establishments of western Europe. There was a natural 
tendency, however, for the severe and exacting features of the Rule to 
be softened considerably in actual practice. As one writer puts it, "the 
excessive abstinence and many other of the mechanical observances of 
the rule were soon found to have little real utility when simply enforced 
by a rule, and not practiced willingly for the sake of self-discipline." 
The obligation of manual labor, for example, was frequently dispensed 
with in order that the monks might occupy themselves with the studies 
for which the Benedictines have always been famous. Too often such 
relaxation was but a pretext for the indulgence of idleness or vice. 
The disrepute into which such tendencies brought the monastics in 
the tenth and eleventh centuries gave rise to numerous attempts to 
revive the primitive discipline, the most notable of which was the so- 
called "Cluniac movement." 

The monastery of Cluny, on the borders of Aquitaine and Burgundy, 
was established under the terms of a charter issued by William the 
Pious, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne, September 11, 910. 
The conditions of its foundation, set forth in the text of the charter 
given below, were in many ways typical. The history of the monastery 
was, however, quite exceptional. During the invasions and civil wars 
of the latter half of the ninth century, many of the monasteries of west- 
ern Europe had fallen under the control of unscrupulous laymen who 
used them mainly to satisfy their greed or ambition, and in conse- 
quence by the time that Cluny was founded the standard of monastic 

24.5 



246 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

life and service had been seriously impaired. The monks had grown 
worldly, education was neglected, and religious services had become 
empty formalities. Powerful nobles used their positions of advantage 
to influence, and often to dictate, the election of bishops and abbots, 
and the men thus elected were likely enough to be unworthy of their 
offices in both character and ability. The charter of the Cluny monas- 
tery, however, expressly provided that the abbot should be chosen bj'^ 
canonical election, i. e., by the monks, and without any sort of outside 
interference. The life of the monastery was to be regulated by the 
Benedictine Rule, though with rather less stress on manual labor and 
rather more on religious services and literary employment. Cluny, 
indeed, soon came to be one of the principal centers of learning in west- 
ern Europe, as well as perhaps the greatest administrator of charity. 

Another notable achievement of Cluny was the building up of the so- 
called " Cluny Congregation." Hitherto it had been customary for mon- 
asteries to be entirely independent of one another, even when founded 
by monks sent out from a parent establishment. Cluny, however, kept 
under the control of her own abbot all monasteries founded by her 
agents and made the priors of these monasteries directly responsible 
to him. Many outside abbeys were drawn into the new system, so that 
by the middle of the twelfth century the Cluny congregation was com- 
prised of more than two thousand monasteries, all working harmoniously 
under a single abbot-general. The majority of these were in France, but 
there were many also in Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and England. 
It was the Cluny monks who gave the Pope his chief support in the 
struggle to free the Church from lay investiture and simony and to 
enforce the ideal of a celibate clergy. This movement for reform may 
properly be said, indeed, to have originated with the Cluniacs and to 
have been taken up only later by the popes, chiefly by Gregory VII. 
By the end of the eleventh century Cluniac discipline had begun to 
grow lax and conditions were gradually shaped for another wave of 
monastic reform, which came with the establishment of the Carthusians 
(in 1084) and of the Cistercians (in 1098). 



CHARTER OF THE CLUNY MONASTERY 247 

Source — ^Text in Martin Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la 
France ["Collection of the Historians of Gaul and of France"] 
(Paris, 1874), Vol. IX., pp. 709-711. 

To all who think wisely it is evident that the providence of 
God has made it possible for rich men, by using well their tem- 
poral possessions, to be able to merit eternal rewards. . . . 
I, William, count and duke, after diligent reflection, and desir- 
ing to provide for my own safety while there- is still time, have 
decided that it is advisable, indeed absolutely necessary, that 
Motives from the possessions which God has given me I 

William^s should give some portion for the good of my soul. 

benefaction I do this, indeed, in order that I who have thus in- 
creased in wealth may not at the last be accused of having spent all 
in caring for my body, but rather may rejoice, when fate at length 
shall snatch all things away, in having preserved something for 
myself. I cannot do better than follow the precepts of Christ 
and make His poor my friends. That my gift may be durable and 
not transitory I will support at my own expense a congregation 
of monks. And I hope that I shall receive the reward of the 
righteous because I have received those whom I believe to be 
righteous and who despise the world, although I myself am not 
able to despise all things.^ 

Therefore be it known to all who live in the unity of the faith 
and who await the mercy of Christ, and to those who shall suc- 
ceed them and who shall continue to exist until the end of the 
world, that, for the love of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
I hand over from my own rule to the holy apostles, namely, 
Th 1 d d P^ter and Paul, the possessions over which I hold 
other property sway — the town of Cluny, with the court and 
demesne manor, and the church in honor of St. 
Mary, the mother of God, and of St. Peter, the prince of the 
apostles, together with all the things pertaining to it, the villas, 

1 In other words, it is Duke William's hope that, though not himself 
willing to be restricted to the life of a monk, he may secure substantially 
an equivalent reward by patronizing men who are thus willing. 



248 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

the chapels, the serfs of both sexes, the vines, the fields, the 
meadows, the woods, the waters and their outlets, the mills, the 
incomes and revenues, what is cultivated and what is not, all 
without reserve. These things are situated in or about the 
county of Macon, ^ each one marked off by definite bounds. I 
give, moreover, all these things to the aforesaid apostles — I, 
William, and my wife Ingelberga — first for the love of God; then 
for the soul of my lord King Odo, of my father and my mother; 
for myself and my wife, — for the salvation, namely, of our souls 
and bodies; and not least, for that of Ava, who left me these 
things in her will; for the souls also of our brothers and sisters 
and nephews, and of all our relatives of both sexes; for our faith- 
ful ones who adhere to our service; for the advancement, also, 
and integrity of the Catholic religion. Finally, since all of us 
Christians are held together by one bond of love and faith, let 
this donation be for all — for the orthodox, namely, of past, 
present, or future times. 

I give these things, moreover, with this understanding, that 
in Cluny a monastery shall be constructed in honor of the holy 
apostles Peter and Paul, and that there the monks shall con- 
gregate and live according to the rule of St. Benedict, and that 

, ^ they shall possess and make use of these same 

A monastery -^ ^ 

to be estab- things for all time. In such wise, however, that 
the venerable house of prayer which is there shall 
be faithfully frequented with vows and supplications, and that 
heavenly conversations shall be sought after with all desire and 
with the deepest ardor; and also that there shall be diligently 
directed to God prayers and exhortations, as well for me as for 
all, according to the order in which mention has been made of 
them above. And let the monks themselves, together with all 
aforesaid possessions, be under the power and dominion of the 
abbot Berno, who, as long as he shall live, shall preside over 

1 Macon, the seat of the diocese in which Chmy was situated, was on the 
Saone, a short distance to the southeast. 



CHARTER OF THE CLUNY MONASTERY 249 

them regularly according to his knowledge and ability.^ But 

after his death, those same monks shall have power and per- 

_, ^. „ mission to elect any one of their order whom 

Election of '' 

abbots to be they please as abbot and rector, following the will 

' * pflnoniofll ' ' 

of God and the rule promulgated by St. Bene- 
dict — in such wise that neither by the intervention of our own or 
of any other power may they be impeded from making a purely ca- 
nonical election. Every five years, moreover, the aforesaid monks 
shall pay to the church of the apostles at Rome ten shillings to 
supply them with lights; and they shall have the protection of 
those same apostles and the defense of the Roman pontiff; and 
those monks may, with their whole heart and soul, according to 
their ability and knowledge, build up the aforesaid place. 

We will, further, that in our times and in those of our suc- 
cessors, according as the opportunities and possibilities of that 
Works of char- place shall allow, there shall daily, with the great- 
ity enjoined gg|. zeal, be performed works of mercy towards 
the poor, the needy, strangers, and pilgrims.^ It has pleased us 
also to insert in this document that, from this day, those same 
monks there congregated shall be subject neither to our yoke, 
nor to that of our relatives, nor to the sway of the royal might, 
nor to that of any earthly power. And, through God and all His 
saints, and by the awful day of judgment, I warn and admonish 
that no one of the secular princes, no count, no bishop, not even 
the pontiff of the aforesaid Roman see, shall invade the property 
of these servants of God, or alienate it, or diminish it, or ex- 
change it, or give it as a benefice to any one, or set up any prelate 
over them against their will.^ 

1 Berno served as abbot of Cluny from 910 until 927. 

2 That the charitable side of the monastery's work was well attended 
to is indicated by the fact that in a single year, late in the eleventh century, 
seventeen thousand poor were given assistance by the monks. 

3 The remainder of the charter consists of a series of imprecations of 
disaster and punishment upon all who at any time and in any way should 
undertake to interfere with the vested rights just granted. These im- 
precations were strictly typical of the media'val spirit — so much so that 
many of them came to be mere formula;, employed to give documents due 



250 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

43. The Early Career of St. Bernard and the Founding of Glairvaux 

The most important individual who had part in the twelfth century- 
movement for monastic reform was unquestionably St. Bernard, of 
whom indeed it has been said with reason that for a quarter of a century- 
there was no more influential man in Europe. Born in 1091, he came 
upon the scene when times were ripe for great deeds and great careers, 
whether with the crusading hosts in the East or in the vexed swirl of 
secular and ecclesiastical affairs in the West. Particularly- were the 
times ripe for a great preacher and reformer — one who could avail him- 
self of the fresh zeal of the crusading period and turn a portion of it to 
the regeneration of the corrupt and sluggish spiritual life which in far 
too great a measure had crept in to replace the. earlier purity and devo- 
tion of the clergy. The need of reform was perhaps most conspicuous 
in the monasteries, for many monastic establishments had not been 
greatly affected by the Cluniac movement of the previous century, and 
in many of those which had been touched temporarily the purifying 
influences had about ceased to produce results. It was as a monastic 
reformer that St. Bernard rendered greatest service to the Church of 
his day, though he was far more than a mere zealot. He was, says 
Professor Emerton, more thg-n any other man, representative of the 
spirit of the Middle Ages. "The monastery meant to him, not a place of 
easy and luxurious retirement, where a man might keep himself pure 
from earthly contact, nor even a home of learning, from which a man 
might influence his world. It meant rather a place of pitiless discipline, 
whereby the natural man should be reduced to the lowest terms and 
thus the spiritual life be given its largest liberty. The aim of Bernard 
was nothing less than the regeneration of society through the presence 
in it of devoted men, bound together by a compact organization, and 
holding up to the world the highest types of an ideal which had already 
fixed itself in the imagination of the age." ^ 

The founding of Clairvaux by St. Bernard, in 1115, was not the be- 
ginning of a new monastic order; the Cistercians, to whom the estab- 
lishment properly belonged, had originated at Citeaux seventeen years 
before. But in later times St. Bernard was very properly regarded as a 

solemnity, but without any especially direful designs on the part of the writer 
who used them. 

1 Emerton, Mediceval Europe, p. 458. 



THE EARLY CAREER OF ST. BERNARD 251 

second founder of the Cistercians, and the story of his going forth from 
the parent house to estabUsh the new one affords an excellent illustra- 
tion of the spirit which dominated the leaders in monastic reform in 
the eleventh and twelfth centuries and of the methods they employed 
to keep ahve the lofty ideals of the old Benedictine system; and, al- 
though individual monasteries were founded under the most diverse 
circumstances, the story is of interest as showing us the precise way in 
which one monastic house took its origin. By the time of St. Bernard's 
death (1153) not fewer than a hundred and fifty religious houses had 
been regenerated under his inspiration. 

We are fortunate in possessing a composite biography of the great 
reformer which is practically contemporary. It is in five books, the first 
of which was written by William, abbot of St. Thierry of Rheims; the 
second by Arnold, abbot of Bonneval, near Chartres; and the third, 
fourth, and fifth by Geoffrey, a monk of Clairvaux and a former secre- 
tary of St. Bernard. William of St. Thierry (from whose portion of the 
biography selection "a," below is taken) wrote about 1140, Arnold and 
Geoffrey soon after Bernard's death in 1153. 

Sources — (a) Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, Bernardus Claroevallensis [Wil- 
liam of Saint Thierry, "Life of St. Bernard"], Bk. I., Chaps. 1-4. 

(b) The Acta Sanctorum. Translated in Edward L. Cutts, Scenes 
and Characters of the Middle Ages (London, 1872), pp. 11-12. 

(a) 
Saint Bernard was born at Fontaines in Burgundy [near 
Dijon], at the castle of his father. His parents were famed 
among the famous of that age, most of all because of their piety. 
His father, Tescelin, was a member of an ancient and knightly 
family, fearing God and scrupulously just. Even when engaged 
in holy war he plundered and destroyed no one; he contented 
himself with his worldly possessions, of which he had an abund- 
ance, and used them in all manner of good works. With both 
Bernard's his counsel and his arms he served temporal lords, 

parents J3^^ go g^g never to neglect to render to the sover- 

eign Lord that which was due Him. Bernard's mother, Alith, 
of the castle Montbar, mindful of holy law, was submissive to 



252 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

her husband and, with him, governed the household in the fear 
of God, devoting lierself to deeds of mercy and rearing lier chil- 
dren in strict discipline. She bore seven children, six boys and 
one girl, not so much for the glory of her husband as for that 
of God; for all the sons became monks and the daughtei- a 
nun.i . . . 

As soon as Bernard was of sufficient age his mother intrusted 
his education to the teachers in the church at Chatillon ^ and 
did everything in her power to enable him to make rapid prog- 
ress. The young boy, abounding in pleasing qualities and en- 
dowed with natural genius, fulfilled his mother's every expecta- 
tion; for he advanced in his study of letters at a speed beyond 
his age and that of other children of the same age. But in secular 
matters he began already, and very naturally, to humble him- 
His early self in the interest of his future perfection, for 

characteristics j^g exhibited the greatest simplicity, loved to be 
in solitude, fled from people, was extraordinarily thoughtful, 
submitted himself implicitly to his parents, had little desire to 
converse, was devoted to God, and applied himself to his studies 
as the means by which he should be able to learn of God through 
the Scriptures. . . . 

Determined that it would be best for him to abandon the 
world, he began to inquire where his soul, under the yoke of 
Christ, would be able to find the most complete and sure repose. 
The recent establishment of the order of Citeaux ^ suggested 
itself to his thought. The harvest was abundant, but the 
He decides to laborers were few, for hardly any one had sought 
^t C^'t^^ ^ monk happiness by taking up residence there, because of 
the excessive austerity of life and the poverty 
which there prevailed, but which had no terrors for the soul truly 
seeking God. Without hesitation or misgivings, he turned his 

1 Bernard was the third son. 

2 About sixty miles southeast of Troyes. 

3 Citeaux (estabhshed by Odo, duke of Burgundy, in 1098) was near 
Dijon in Burgundy. 



THE EARLY CAREER OF ST. BERNARD 253 

steps to that place, thinking that there he would be able to find 
seclusion and, in the secret of the presence of God, escape the 
importunities of men; wishing particularly there to gain a refuge 
from the vain glory of the noble's life, and to win purity of soul, 
and perhaps the name of saint. 

When his brothers, who loved him according to the flesh, 
discovered that he intended to become a monk, they employed 
every means to turn him to the pursuit of letters and to attach 
him to the secular life by the love of worldly knowledge. With- 
out doubt, as he has himself declared, he was not a little moved 
by their arguments. But the memory of his devout mother 
urged him importunately to take the step. It often seemed to 
him that she appeared before him, reproaching him and remind- 
ing him that she had not reared him for frivolous things of that 
sort, and that she had brought him up in quite another hope. 
Finally, one day when he was returning from the siege of a 
chateau called Grancey, and was coming to his brothers, who 
were with the duke of Burgundy, he began to be violently tor- 
mented by these thoughts. Finding by the roadside a church, 
he went in and there prayed, with flooded eyes, lifting his hands 
toward Heaven and pouring out his heart like water before the 
Lord. That day fixed his resolution irrevocably. From that 
His struggle hour, even as the fire consumes the forests and 
and his victory ^^le flame ravages the mountains, seizing every- 
thing, devouring first that which is nearest but advancing to 
objects farther removed, so did the fire which God had kindled 
in the heart of his servant, desiring that it should consume it, 
lay hold first of his brothers (of whom only the youngest, in- 
capable yet of becoming a monk, was left to console his old 
father), then his parents, his companions, and his friends, from 
whom no one had ever expected such a step. . . . 

The number of those who decided to take upon themselves 
monastic vows increased and, as one reads of the earliest sons 
of the Church, " all the multitude of those who believed were of 



254 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

one mind and one heart" [Acts v. 32]. They hved together and 

no one else dared mingle with them. They had at Chatillon a 

house which they possessed in common and in which they held 

meetings, dwelt together, and held converse with one another. 

.„ J J No one was so bold as to enter it, unless he were 

Bernard and 

his companions a member of the congregation. If any one en- 

^ 3, 1 on jeered there, seeing and hearing what was done 
and said (as the Apostle declared of the Christians of Corinth), 
he was convinced by their prophecies and, adoring the Lord" and 
perceiving that God was truly among them, he either joined him- 
self to the brotherhood or, going away, wept at his own plight 
and their happy state. . . . 

At that time, the young and feeble establishment at Citeaux, 
under the venerable abbot Stephen,^ began to be seriously weak- 
ened by its paucity of numbers and to lose all hope of having 
successors to perpetuate the heritage of holy poverty, for every- 
body revered the life of these monks for its sancity but held aloof 
from it because of its austerity. But the monastery was sud- 
They enter denly visited and made glad by the Lord in a 
Citeaux happy and unhoped-for manner. In 1113, fifteen 

years after the foundation of the monastery, the servant of God, 
Bernard, then about twenty-three years of age, entered the 
establishment under the abbot Stephen, with his companions 
to the number of more than thirty, and submitted himself to the 
blessed yoke of Christ. From that day God prospered the house, 
and that vine of the Lord bore fruit, putting forth its branches 
from sea to sea. 

Such were the holy beginnings of the monastic life of that 
man of God. It is impossible to any one who has not been im- 
bued as he with the spirit of God to recount the illustrious deeds 
of his career, and his angelic conduct, during his life on earth. 
He entered the monastery poor in spirit, still obscure and of no 

1 Stephen Harding, an Englishman, succeeded Alberic as abbot of Citeaux 
in 1113. 



THE EARLY CAREER OF ST. BERNARD 255 

fame, with the intention of there perishing in the heart and 
memory of men, and hoping to be forgotten and ignored Hke a 
lost vessel. But God ordered it otherwise, and prepared him as 
a chosen vessel, not only to strengthen and extend the monastic 
order, but also to bear His name before kings and peoples to the 
ends of the earth. . . . 

At the time of harvest the brothers were occupied, with the 
fervor and joy of the Holy Spirit, in reaping the grain. Since 
he [Bernard] was not able to have part in the labor, they bade 
him sit by them and take his ease. Greatly troubled, he had 
Bernard prays recourse to prayer and, with much weeping, im- 
the ability to plored the Lord to grant him the strength to be- 
i^eap come a reaper. The simplicity of his faith did not 

deceive him, for that which he asked he obtained. Indeed from 
that day he prided himself in being more skilful than the others at 
that task; and he was the more given over to devotion during 
that labor because he realized that the ability to perform it 
was a direct gift from God. Refreshed by his employments of 
this kind, he prayed, read, or meditated continuously. If an 
opportunity for prayer in solitude offered itself, he seized it ; but 
in any case, whether by himself or with companions, he preserved 
a solitudo in his heart, and thus was everywhere alone. He read 
gladly, and always with faith and thoughtfulness, the Holy 
Scriptures, saying that they never seemed to him so clear as 
when read in the text alone, and he declared his ability to dis- 
cern their truth and divine virtue much more readily in the 
His devotion source itself than in the commentaries which 
orthe^Scrip-^^ were derived from it. Nevertheless, he read 
tures humbly the saints and orthodox commentators 

and made no pretense of rivaling their knowledge; but, sub- 
mitting his to theirs, and tracing it faithfully to its sources, he 
drank often at the fountain whence they had drawn. It is thus 
that, full of the spirit which has divinely inspired all Holy Scrip- 
ture, he has served God to this day, as the Apostle says, with so 



256 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

great confidence, and such ability to instruct, convert, and sway. 
And when he preaches the word of God, he renders so clear and 
agreeable that which he takes from Scripture to insert in his 
discourse, and he has such power to move men, that everybody, 
both those clever in worldly matters and those who possess 
spiritual knowledge, marvel at the eloquent words which fall 
from his lips. 

(b) 

Twelve monks and their abbot, representing our Lord and His 
apostles, were assembled in the church. Stephen placed a cross 
in Bernard's hands, who solemnly, at the head of his small band, 
walked forth from Citeaux. ... Bernard struck away to 
the northward. For a distance of nearly ninety miles he kept 
this course, passing up by the source qf<-the Seine, by Chatillon, 
of school-day memories, until he arrived at La Ferte, about 
_. 1 4- -1 equally distant between Troyes and Chaumont, 
for the new in the diocese of La]|igres, and situated on the 
inona y river Aube.^ About four miles beyond La Ferte 

was a deep valley opening to the east. Thick umbrageous forests 
gave it a character of gloom and wildness; but a gushing stream 
of limpid water which ran through it was sufficient to redeem 
every disadvantage. 

In June, 1115, Bernard took up his abode iii the "Valley of 

Wormwood," as it was called, and began to look for means of 

shelter and sustenance against the approaching winter. The 

m,- £ .. I. -u rude fabric which he and his monks raised with 
The first build- 
ing construct- their own hands was long preserved by the pious 

veneration of the Cistercians. It consisted of 
a building covered by a single roof, under which chapel, dor- 
mitory, and refectory were all included. Neither stone nor 

1 Chatillon was about twelve miles south of La Fert^. The latter was 
fifty miles southeast of Troyes and only half as far from Chaumont, despite 
the author's statement that it lay midway between the two places. The 
Aube is an important tributary of the upper Seine. 



THE EARLY CAREER OF ST. BERNARD 257 

wood hid the bare earth, which served for a floor. Windows 
scarcely wider than a man's head admitted a feeble light. In 
this room the monks took their frugal meals of herbs and water. 
Immediately above the refectory was the sleeping apartment. 
It was reached by, a ladder, and was, in truth, a sort of loft. 
Here were the monks' beds, which were peculiar. They were 
made in the form of boxes, or bins, of wooden planks, long and 
wide enough for a man to lie down in. A small space, hewn out 
with an axe, allowed room for the sleeper to get in or out. The 
inside was strewn with chaff, or dried leaves, which, with the 
woodwork, seem to have been the only covering permitted. . . 
The monks had thus got a house over their heads; but they 
had very little else. They had left Citeaux in June. Their 
journey had probably occupied them a fortnight; their clearing, 
preparations, and building, perhaps two months; and thus they 
were near September when this portion of their labor was ac- 
complished. Autumn and winter were approaching, and they 
had no store laid by. Their food during the summer had been 
a compound of leaves intermixed with coarse grain. Beech- 
nuts and roots were to be their main support during the winter. 
Hardships And now to the privations of insufficient food 

encountered ^g^g added the wearing out of their shoes and 
clothes. Their necessities grew with the severity of the season, 
until at last even salt failed them; and presently Bernard heard 
murmurs. He argued and exhorted; he spoke to them of the 
fear and love of God, and strove to rouse their drooping spirits 
by dwelling on the hopes of eternal life and» Divine recompense. 
Their sufferings made them deaf and indifferent to their abbot's 
words. They would not remain in this valley of bitterness; they 
would return to Citeaux. Bernard, seeing they had lost their 
trust in God, reproved them no more; but himself sought in 
earnest prayer for release from their difficulties. Presently a 
voice from heaven said, "Arise, Bernard, thy prayer is granted 
thee." Upon which the monks said, ''What didst thou ask of 

Med. Hist.— 17 



258 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

the Lord?" "Wait, and ye shall see, ye of little faith," was the 
reply; and presently came a stranger who gave the abbot ten 
livres. 

44. A Description of Olairvaux 

The following is an interesting description of the abbey of Clairvaux, 
written by William of St. Thierry, the friend and biographer of Bernard. 
After giving an account of the external appearance and surroundings 
of the monastery, the writer goes on to portray the daily life and devo- 
tion of the monks who resided in it. In reading the description it 
should be borne in mind that Clairvaux was a new establishment, 
founded expressly to further the work of monastic reform, and that 
therefore at the time when William of St. Thierry knew it, it exhibited 
a state of piety and industry considerably above that to be found in 
the average abbey of the day. 

Source — Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, Bernardus Clarcevallensis [William 
of Saint Thierry, " Life of St. Bernard "], Bk. I., Chap. 7. Trans- 
lated in Edward L. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle 
Ages (London; 1872), pp. 12-14. 

At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux by descending the 
hill you could see that it was a temple of God; and the still, 
silent valley bespoke, in the modest simplicity of its buildings, 
the unfeigned humility of Christ's poor. Moreover, in this valley 
full of men, where no one was permitted to be idle, where one 
and all were occupied with their allotted tasks, a silence deep 
The solitude ^^ that of night prevailed. The sounds of labor, or 
of Clairvaux ^]-^g chants of the brethren in the choral service, 
were the only exceptions. The orderliness of this silence, and 
the report that went forth concerning it, struck such a reverence 
even into secular persons that they dreaded breaking it, — I will 
not say by idle or wicked conversation, but even by proper 
remarks. The solitude, also, of the place — between dense forests 
in a narrow gorge of neighboring hills — in a certain sense recalled 

1 The famous founder of the monastery of Monte Cassino and the com- 
piler of the Benedictine Rule [see p. 83]. 



A DESCRIPTION OF CLAIRVAUX 259 

the cave of our father St. Benedict/ so that while they strove 

to imitate his Hfe, they also had some similarity to him in their 

habitation and loneliness. . . . 

Although the monastery is situated in a valley, it has its 

foundations on the holy hills, whose gates the Lord loveth more 

than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of 

it, because the glorious and wonderful God therein worketh great 

marvels. There the insane recover their reason, and although 

their outward man is worn away, inwardly they are born again. 

-_ , There the proud are humbled, the rich are made 

works accom- poor, and the poor have the Gospel preached to 

plished there . , i j i i i e • • i ^ 

them, and the darkness oi smners is changed 

into light. A large multitude of blessed poor from the ends of 
the earth have there assembled, yet have they one heart and 
one mind; justly, therefore, do all who dwell there rejoice with 
no empty joy. They have the certain hope of perennial joy, of 
their ascension heavenward already commenced. In Clairvaux, 
they have found Jacob's ladder, with angels upon it; some 
descending, who so provide for their bodies that they faint not 
on the way; others ascending, who so rule their souls that their 
bodies hereafter may be glorified with them. 

For my part, the more attentively I watch them day by day, 
the more do I believe that they are perfect followers of Christ 
in all things. When they pray and speak to God in spirit and 
in truth, by their friendly and quiet speech to Him, as well 
The piety of as by their humbleness of demeanor, they are 
the monks plainly seen to be God's companions and friends. 

When, on the other hand, they openly praise God with psalms, 
how pure and fervent are their minds, is shown by their posture 
of body in holy fear and reverence, while by their careful pro- 
nunciation and modulation of the psalms, is shown how sweet to 
their lips are the words of God — sweeter than honey to their 
mouths. As I watch them, therefore, singing without fatigue 
from before midnight to the dawn of day, with only a brief in- 



260 THE MONASTIC REFORMATION 

terval, they appear a little less than the angels, but much more 
than men. . . . 

As regards their manual labor, so patiently and placidly, with 
such quiet countenances, in such sweet and holy order, do they 
perform all things, that although they exercise themselves at 
many works, they never seem moved or burdened in anything, 
whatever the labor may be. Whence it is manifest that that 
Holy Spirit worketh in them who disposeth of all things with 
sweetness, in whom they are refreshed, so that they rest even- 
Their manual in their toil. Many of them, I hear, are bishops 
labor ^^^ earls, and many illustrious through their 

birth or knowledge; but now, by God's grace, all distinction of 
persons being dead among them, the greater any one thought 
himself in the world, the more in this flock does he regard himself 
as less than the least. I see them in the garden with hoes, in the 
meadows with forks or rakes, in the fields with scythes, in the 
forest with axes. To judge from their outward appearance, 
their tools, their bad and disordered clothes, they appear a race 
of fools, without speech or sense. But a true thought in my mind 
tells me that their life in Christ is hidden in the heavens. Among 
them I see Godfrey of Peronne, Raynald of Picardy, William of 
St. Omer, Walter of Lisle, all of whom I knew formerly in the 
old man, whereof I now see no trace, by God's favor. I knew' 
them proud and puffed up; I see them walking humbly under 
the merciful hand of God. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

45. Gregory VII. 's Conception of the Papal Authority 

HiLDEBRAND, who as pope was known as Gregory VII., was born 
about the year 1025 in the vicinity of the little Tuscan town of Soana.^ 
His education was received in the rich monastery of Saint Mary on the 
Aventine, of which one of his uncles was abbot. At the age of twenty- 
five he became chaplain to Pope Gregory VI., after whose fall from 
power he sought seclusion in the monastery at Cluny. In 1049, how- 
ever, he again appeared in Italy, this time in the role of companion to 
the new pontiff, Leo IX. In a few years he became sub-deacon and 
cardinal and was intrusted with the municipal affairs and financial in- 
terests of the Holy See. He served as papal legate in France and in 
1057 was sent to Germany to obtain the consent of Empress Agnes to 
the hurried election of Stephen IX. While in these countries he be- 
came convinced that the evil conditions — simony, lay investiture, and 
non-celibacy of the clergy— which the Cluniacs were seeking to reform 
would never be materially improved by the temporal powers, and con- 
sequently that the only hope of betterment lay in the establishing of 
an absolute papal supremacy before which kings, and even emperors, 
should be compelled to bow in submission. In April, 1073, Hildebrand 
himself was made pope, nominally by the vote of the College of Cardi- 
nals, but really by the enthusiastic choice of the Roman populace. His 
whole training and experience had fitted him admirably for the place 
and had equipped him with the capacity to make of his office some- 
thing more than had any of his predecessors. When he became pope 
it was with a very lofty ideal of what the papacy should be, and the 
surprising measure in which he was able to realize this ideal entitles 
him without question to be regarded as the greatest of all mediaeval 
popes. 

261 



262 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

In the document given below, the so-called Didatus Papce, Pope Greg- 
ory's conception of the nature of the papal power and its proper place 
in the world is stated in the form of a clear and forcible summary. 
Until recently the Didatus was supposed to have been written by Greg- 
ory himself, but it has been fairly well demonstrated that it was com- 
posed not earlier than 1087 and was therefore the work of some one else 
(Gregory died in 1085). It conforms very closely to a collection of the 
laws of the Church published in 1087 by a certain cardinal by the name 
of Deusdedit. The document loses little or none of its value by reason 
of this uncertainty as to its authorship, for it represents Pope Gregory's 
views as accurately as if he were known to have written it. In judging 
Gregory's theories it should be borne in mind (1) that it was not personal 
ambition, but sincere conviction, that lay beneath them; (2) that the 
temporal states which existed in western Europe in Gregory's day were 
rife with feudal anarchy and oppression and often too weak to be capable 
of rendering justice ; and (3) that Gregory claimed, not that the Church 
should actually assume the management of the civil government 
throughout Europe, but only that in cases of notorious failure of tem- 
poral sovereigns to live right and govern well, the supreme authority 
of the papacy should be brought to bear upon them, either to depose 
them or to compel them to mend their ways. It is worthy of note, 
however, that Gregory was careful to lay the foundations of a formidable 
political power in Italy, chiefly by availing himself of the practices of 
feudalism, as seen, for example, in the grant of southern Italy to the 
Norman Robert Guiscard to be held as a fief of the Roman see. 



Source — ^Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanice Historica Selecta 
(Mtinchen, 1889), Vol. III., p. 17. 

1. That the Roman Church was founded by God alone. 

2. That the Roman bishop alone is properly called universal.^ 

^The incumbent of the papal office was at the same time bishop of Rome, 
temporal sovereign of the papal lands, and head of the church universal. 
In earlier times there was always danger that the third of these functions 
be lost and that the papacy revert to a purely local institution, but by 
Gregory VII. 's day the universal headship was clearly recognized through- 
out the West as inherent in the office. It was only when there arose the 
question as to how far this headship justified the Pope in attempting to 
control the affairs of the world that serious disagreement manifested itself. 



GREGORY VII. 'S VIEW OF THE PAPAL AUTHORITY 263 

3. That he alone has the power to depose bishops and rein- 
state them. 

4. That his legate, though of inferior rank, takes precedence 
of all bishops in council, and may give sentence of deposition 
against them. 

5. That the Pope has the power to depose [bishops] in their 
absence.^ 

6. That we should not even stay in the same house with those 
who are excommunicated by him. 

8. That he alone may use the imperial insignia.^ 

9. That the Pope is the only person whose feet are kissed by 
all princes. 

11. That the name which he bears belongs to him alone.^ 

12. That he has the power to depose emperors.^ 

13. That he may, if necessity require, transfer bishops from 
one see to another. 

16. That no general synod may be called without his consent. 

17. That no action of a synod, and no book, may be considered 
canonical without his authority.^ 

18. That his decree can be annulled by no one, and that he 
alone may annul the decrees of any one. 

19. That he can be judged by no man. 

20. That no one shall dare to condemn a person who appeals 
to the apostolic see. 

22. That the Roman Church has never erred, nor ever, by 
the testimony of Scripture, shall err, to all eternity.® 

1 That is, without giving them a hearing at a later date. 

2 On the basis of the forged Donation of Constantine the Pope claimed 
the right here mentioned. There was no proper warrant for it. 

•^ "This is the first distinct assertion of the exclusive right of the bishop 
of Rome to the title of pope, once applied to all bishops." Robinson, 
Readings in European History, Vol. I., p. 274. The word pope is derived from 
papa (father). It is still used as the common title of all priests in the 
Greek Church. 

4 This, with the letter given on page 265, sets forth succinctly the papacy's 
absolute claim of authority as against the highest temporal power in Europe. 

5 That is, pronounced by the canons of the Church to be divinely in- 
spired. 

. 6 This is, of course, not a claim of 'papal infallibility. The assertion is 



264 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

26. That no one can be considered Catholic who does not agree 
with the Roman Church. 

27. That he [the Pope] has the power to absolve the subjects 
of unjust rulers from their oath of fidelity. 

46. Letter of Gregory VII. to Henry IV. (December, 1075) 

The high ideal of papal supremacy over temporal sovereigns which 
Gregory cherished when he became pope in 1073, and which is set 
forth so forcibly in the Didatus, was one whose validity no king or 
emperor could be brought to recognize. It involved an attitude of 
inferiority and submissiveness which monarchs felt to be quite incon- 
sistent with the complete independence which they claimed in the- 
management of the affairs of their respective states. Perhaps one may 
say that the theory in itself, as a mere expression of religious sentiment, 
was not especially obnoxious; many an earlier pope had proclaimed it 
in substance without doing the kings and emperors of Europe material 
injury. It was the firm determination and the aggressive effort of^ 
Gregory to reduce the theory to an actual working system that pre- 
cipitated a conflict. 

The supreme test of Gregory's ability to make the papal power felt in 
the measure that he thought it should be came early in the pontificate in 
the famous breach with Henry IV. of Germany. Henry at the time was 
not emperor in name, but only "king of the Romans," the imperial 
coronation not yet having taken place. ^ For all jDractical purposes, 
however, he may be regarded as occupying the emperor's position, since 
all that was lacking was the performance of a more or less perfunctory 
ceremony. Henry's specific grievances against the Pope were that the 
latter had declared it a sin for an ecclesiastic to be invested with his 
office by a layman, though this was almost the universal practice in 
Germany, and that he had condemned five of the king's councilors for 
simony,^ suspended the archbishop of Bremen, the bishops of Speyer 

merely that in the domain of faitli and morals the Roman church, judged 
by Scriptural principles, has never pursued a course either improper or un- 
warranted. 

1 It did not occur until 1084. Henry had inherited the office at the death 
of his father, Henry III., in 1056. 

2 The sin of simony comprised the employment of any corrupt means to 
obtain appointment or election to an ecclesiastical office. For the origin 



LETTER OF GREGORY VII. TO HENRY IV. 265 

and Strassbiirg, and two Lombard bishops, and deposed the bishop of 
Florence. Half of the land and wealth of Germany was in the hands 
of bishops and abbots who, if the Pope were to have his way, would be 
released frpm all practical dependence upon the king and so would be 
free to encourage and take part in the feudal revolts which Henry was 
exerting himself so vigorously to crush. June 8, 1075, on the banks of 
the Unstrutt, the king won a signal victory over the rebellious feudal 
lords, after which he felt strong enough to defy the authority of 
Gregory with impunity. He therefore continued to associate with the 
five condemned councilors and, in contempt of recent papal declara- 
tions against lay investiture, took it upon himself to appoint and invest 
a number of bishops and abbots, though always with extreme care that 
the right kind of men be selected. Pope Gregory was, of course, not 
the man to overlook such conduct and at once made vigorous protest. 
The letter given below was written in December, 1075, and is one of a 
considerable series which passed back and forth across the Alps prior 
to the breaking of the storm in 1076-1077. At this stage matters had 
not yet got beyond the possibility of compromise' and reconciliation; 
in fact Gregory writes as much-as anything else to get the king's own 
statement regarding the reports of his conduct which had come to 
Rome. The tone of the letter is firm, it is true, but conciliatory. The 
thunder of subsequent epistles to the recreant Henry had not yet been 
brought into play. 

Source — ^Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanioe Historica Selecta 
(Munchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 18-22. Adapted from translation 
in Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Medi- 
ceval History (New York, 1905), pp. 147-150. 

Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Henry, the 
king, greeting and apostolic benediction, — that is, if he be obedi- 
ent to the apostolic see as is becoming in a Christian king: 

It is with some hesitation that we have sent you our apostolic 
benediction, knowing that for all our acts as pope we must 
render an account to God, the severe judge. It is reported that 
you have willingly associated with men who have been excom- 

of the term see the incident recorded in Acts, viii. 18-24. The five coun- 
cilors had been condemned by a synod at Rome in February, 1075. 



266 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

municated by decree of the Pope and sentence of a synod. ^ If 
this be true, you are very well aware that you can receive the 
blessing, neither of God nor of the Pope until you have driven 
„ , . them from you and have compelled them to do 

ed to confess penance, and have also yourself sought absolution 
and forgiveness for your transgressions with due 
repentance and good works. Therefore we advise you that, if 
you realize your guilt in this matter, you immediately confess 
to some pious bishop, who shall absolve you with our permission, 
prescribing for you penance in proportion to the fault, and who 
shall faithfully report to us by letter, with your permission, the 
nature of the penance required. 

"We wonder, moreover, that you should continue to assure us 
by letter and messengers of your devotion and humility; that 
you should call yourself our son and the son of the holy mother 
Church, obedient in the faith, sincere in love, diligent in devo- 
tion; and that you should commend yourself to us with all zeal 
of love and reverence — whereas in fact you are constantly 
disobeying the canonical and apostolic decrees in important 
matters of the faith. . . . Since you confess yourself a son 
of the Church, you should treat with more honor the head of 
the Church, that is, St. Peter, the prince of the apostles. If you 
are one of the sheep of the Lord, you have been entrusted to 
The Pope's ^™ ^^ divine authority, for Christ said to him: 
claim to au- " Peter, feed my sheep " [John, xxi. 16]; and again: 
temporal "And I will give unto thee the keys of the king- 

prmces dom of Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 

on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" [Matt., xvi. 19]. And 
since we, although an unworthy sinner, exercise his authority by 
divine will, the words which you address to us are in reality ad- 
dressed directly to him. And although we read or hear only the 
words, he sees the heart from which the words proceed. There- 

1 The five condemned councilors. 



LETTER OF GREGORY Vll. TO HENRY IV. 267 

fore your highness should be very careful that no insincerity be 
found in your words and messages to us; and that you show due 
reverence, not to us, indeed, but to omnipotent God, in those 
things which especially make for the advance of the Christian 
faith and the well-being of the Church. For our Lord said to the 
apostles and to their successors: "He that heareth you heareth 
me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me" [Luke, x. 16]. 
For no one will disregard our admonitions if he believes that the 
decrees of the Pope have the same authority as the words of the 
apostle himself.^ ... 

Now in the synod held at the apostolic seat to which the divine 
will has called us (at which some of your subjects also were 
present) we, seeing that the Christian religion had been weak- 
ened by many attacks and that the chief and proper motive, 
that of saving souls, had for a long time been neglected and 
slighted, were alarmed at the evident danger of the destruction 
of the flock of the Lord, and had recourse to the decrees and the 
. . , doctrine of the holy fathers. We decreed nothing 

Church to be new, nothing of our invention; but we decided 
correc e ^-^^^ ^^^ error should be abandoned and the single 

primitive rule of ecclesiastical discipline and the familiar way 
of the saints should be again sought out and followed.^ For we 
know that no other door to salvation and eternal life lies open 
to the sheep of Christ than that which was pointed out by Him 
who said: " I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be 
saved, and find pasture" [John, x. 9]; and this, we learn from 
the gospels and from the sacred writings, was preached by the 
apostles and observed by the holy fathers. And we have de- 
cided that this decree — which some, placing human above divine 
honor, have called an unendurable weight and an immense 

iThis portion of the letter comprises a clear assertion of the "Petrine 
Supremacy," i. e., the theory that Peter, as the first bishop of Rome, trans- 
mitted his superiority over all other bishops to his successors in the Roman 
see, who in due time came to constitute the line of popes [see p. 78]. 

2 This refers to a decree of a Roman synod in 1074 against simony and 
the marriage of the clergy. 



268 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

burden, but which we call by its proper name, that is, the truth 

and light necessary to salvation — is to be received and observed 

not only by you and your subjects, but also by all princes and 

peoples of the* earth who confess and worship Christ; for it is 

greatly desired by us, and would be most fitting to you, that 

as you are greater than others in glory, in honor, and in virtue, 

so you should be more distinguished in devotion to Christ. 

Nevertheless, that this decree may not seem to you beyond 

measure grievous and unjust, we have commanded you by your 

faithful ambassadors to send to us the wisest and most pious men 

whom you can find in your kingdom, so that if they can show 

or instruct us in any way how we can temper the sentence 

„ ,. promulgated by the holy fathers without offense 

Gregory dis- r & ^ ^ 

posed to treat to the eternal King or danger to our souls, we 
enry air y ^^^ consider their advice. But, even if we had 
not warned you in so friendly a manner, it would have been only 
right on your part, before you violated the apostolic decrees, to 
ask justice of us in a reasonable manner in any matter in which 
we had injured or affected your honor. But from what you 
have since done and decreed it is evident how little you care 
for our warnings, or for the observance of justice. 

But since we hope that, while the long-suffering patience of 
God still invites you to repent, you may become wdser and your 
heart may be turned to obey the commands of God, we warn 
you with fatherly love that, knowing the rule of Christ to be 
over you, you should consider how dangerous it is to place your 
honor above His, and that you should not interfere with the 
liberty of the Church which He has deigned to join to Himself 
by heavenly union, but rather with faithful devotion you should 
offer your assistance to the increasing of this liberty to omnipo- 
tent God and St. Peter, through whom also your glory may be 
enhanced. You ought to recognize what you undoubtedly owe 
to them for giving you victory over your enemies,^ that as they 

1 In the battle on the Unstrutt, June 8, 1075. 



HENRY IV. 'S REPLY TO GREGORY'S LETTER 269 

have gladdened you with great prosperity, so they should see 
that you are thereby rendered more devout. And in order that 
Henry's obli- the fear of God, in whose hands is all power and 
and o^ev the^^ ^^^ rule, may affect your heart more than these 
papacy our warnings, you should recall what happened 

to Saul, when, after winning the victory which he gained by 
the will of the prophet, he glorified himself in his triumph and 
did not obey the warnings of the prophet, and how God reproved 
him; and, on the other hand, what grace King David acquired 
by reason of his humility, as well as his other virtues. 

47. Henry IV.'s Reply to Gregory's Letter (January, 1076) 

In 1059, when Nicholas II. was pope and Hildebrand was yet only a 
cardinal, a council assembled at the Lateran decreed that henceforth 
the right of electing the sovereign pontiff should be vested exclusively 
in the college of cardinals, or in other words, in seven cardinal bishops 
in the vicinity of Rome and a certain number of cardinal priests and 
deacons attached to the parishes of the city. The people and clergy 
generally were deprived of participation in the election, except so far 
as merely to give their consent. Hildebrand seems to have been the 
real author of the decree. Nevertheless, in 1073, when he was elevated 
to the papal chair, the decree of 1059 was in a measure ignored, for he 
was elected by popular vote and his choice was only passively sanc- 
tioned by the cardinals. When, therefore, the quarrel between him and 
Henry IV. came on, the latter was not slow to make use of the weapon 
which Hildebrand's (or Gregory's) uncanonical election placed in his 
hands. In replying, January 24, 1076, to the papal letter of Decem- 
ber, 1075, he bluntly addresses himself to "Hildebrand, not pope, but 
false monk," and writes a stinging epistle in the tone thus assumed 
in his salutation. In his arraignment of Gregory the king doubtless 
went far beyond the truth; but the fact remains that Gregory's dominat- 
ing purposes in the interest of the papal authority threatened to cut 
deeply into the independence of all temporal sovereigns, and therefore 
rendered such resistance as Henry offered quite inevitable. In the in' 
terim between receiving the Pope's letter and dispatching his repl}- 



270 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

Henry had convened at Worms a council of the German clergy, and 
this body had decreed that Gregory, having wrongfully ascended the 
papal throne, should be compelled forthwith to abdicate it. 

Source — ^Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanice Historica Selecta 
(Munchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 24-25. Translated in Oliver J. 
Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Mediceval History 
(New York, 1905), pp. 151-152. 

Henry, king not by usurpation, but try the holy ordination 
of God, to Hildebrand, not pope, but false monk. 

This is the salut^ion which you deserve, for you have never 
held any office in the Church without making it a source of con- 
fusion and a curse to Christian men, instead of an honor and a 
blessing. To mention only the most obvious cases out of many, 
you have not only dared to lay hands on the Lord's anointed, 
the archbishops, bishops, and priests, but you have scorned 
Gregory de- them and abused them, as if they were ignorant 
onl^adema- servants not fit to know what their master was 
gogue doing. This you have done to gain favor with 

the vulgar crowd. You have declared that the bishops know 
nothing and that you know everything; but if you have such 
great wisdom you have used it not to build but to destroy. 
Therefore we believe that St. Gregory, whose name you have 
presumed to take, had you in mind when he said: "The heart of 
the prelate is puffed up by the abundance of subjects, and he 
thinks himself more powerful than all others." All this we have 
endured because of our respect for the papal office, but you have 
mistaken our humility for fear, and have dared to make an 
attack upon the royal and imperial authority which we received 
The papal from God. You have even threatened to take it 

por^ supr^^- ^^^y^ ^^ '^^ we had received it from you, and as if 
acy rejected the Empire and kingdom were in your disposal 
and not in the disposal of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has 
called us to the government of the Empire, but He never 
called you to the rule of the Church. This is the way you 



HENRY IV. 'S REPLY TO GREGORY'S LETTER 271 

have gained advancement in the Church : through craft you have 
obtained wealth; through wealth you have obtained favor; 
through favor, the power of the sword; and through the power 
of the sword, the papal seat, which is the seat of peace; and then 
from the seat of peace you have expelled peace. For you have 
incited subjects to rebel against their prelates by teaching them 
to despise the bishops, their rightful rulers. You have given to 
laymen the authority over priests, whereby they condemn and 
depose those whom the bishops have put over them to teach 
them. You have attacked me, who, unworthy as I am, have 
yet been anointed to rule among the anointed of God, and who, 
according to the teaching of the fathers, can be judged by no 
one save God alone, and can be deposed for no crime except 
infidelity. For the holy fathers in the time of the apostate 
Julian ^ did not presume to pronounce sentence of deposition 
against him, but left him to be judged and condemned by God. 
„ St. Peter himself said, "Fear God, honor the 

also cites king" [1 Pet., ii. 17]. But you, who fear not God, 

have dishonored me, whom He hath established. 
St. Paul, who said that even an angel from heaven should be 
accursed who taught any other than the true doctrine, did not 
make an exception in your favor, to permit you to teach false 
doctrines. For he says, "But though we, or an angel from 
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we 
have preached unto you, let him be accursed" [Gal., i. 8]. Come 
down, then, from that apostolic seat which you have obtained 
by violence; for you have been declared accursed by St. Paul 
for your false doctrines, and have been condemned by us and 
our bishops for your evil rule. Let another ascend the throne 
of St. Peter, one who will not use religion as a cloak of violence, 
but will teach the life-giving doctrine of that prince of the 

1 Julian succeeded Constantine's son Constantius as head of the Roman 
Empire in 361. He was known as "the Apostate" because of his efforts to 
displace the Christian religion and to restore the old pagan worship. He 
died in battle with the Persians in 363. 



272 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

apostles. I, Henry, king by the grace of God, with all my 
bishops, say unto you: "Come down, come down, and be ac- 
cursed through all the ages." 

48. Henry IV. Deposed by Pope Gregory (1076) 

The foregoing letter of Henry IV. was received at Rome with a storm 
of disapproval and the envoys who bore it barely escaped with their 
lives. A council of French and Italian bishops was convened in the Lat- 
eran (Feb. 24, 1076), and the king's haughty epistle, together with the 
decree of the council at Worms deposing Gregory, were read and allowed 
to have their effect. With the assent of the bishops, the Pope pro- 
nounced the sentence of excommunication against Henry and formally 
released all the latter's Christian subjects from their oath of allegiance. 
Naturally the action of Gregory aroused intense interest throughout 
Europe. In Germany it had the intended effect of detaching many 
influential bishops and abbots from the imperial cause and stir- 
ring the political enemies of the king to renewed activity. The papal 
ban became a pretext for the renewal of the hostility on part of 
his dissatisfied subjects which Henry had but just succeeded in 
suppressing. 

In the first part of the papal decree Gregory seeks to defend himself 
against the charges brought by Henry and the German clergy to the 
effect that he had mounted the papal throne through personal ambi- 
bition and the employment of unbecoming means. It was indisput- 
able that his election had not been strictly in accord with the decree 
of 1059, but it seems equally true that, as Gregory declares, he was 
placed at the helm of the Church contrary to his personal desires. 

Source — -Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanice Historica Selecta 
(Munchen, 1889) , Vol. III. , p. 26. Translated in Oliver J. Thatcher 
and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Mediceval History (New 
York, 1905), pp. 155-156. 

St. Peter, prince of the apostles, incline thine ear unto me, 
I beseech thee, and hear me, thy servant, whom thou hast 
nourished from mine infancy and hast delivered from mine 
enemies that hate me for my fidelity to thee. Thou art my wit^ 



THE PENANCE OP HENRY IV. AT CANOSSA 273 

ness, as are also my mistress, the mother of God, and St. Paul 
thy brother, and all the other saints, that the Holy Roman Church 
Gregory denies called me to its government against my own will, 
souffhf fhe^"^ and that I did not gain thy throne by violence; 
papal office that I would rather have ended my days in exile 
than have obtained thy place by fraud or for worldly ambition. 
It is not by my efforts, but by thy grace, that I am set to rule 
over the Christian world which was especially intrusted to thee 
by Christ. It is by thy grace, and as thy representative that 
God has given to me the power to bind and to loose in heaven 
and in earth. Confident of my integrity and authority, I now 
declare in the name of the omnipotent God, the Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit, that Henry, son of the Emperor Henry, ^ is 
Henrv deprived of his kingdom of Germany and Italy. 

deposed by I do this by thy authority and in defense of the 

honor of thy Church, because he has rebelled 
against it. He who attempts to destroy the honor of the Church 
should be deprived of such honor as he may have held. He has 
refused to obey as a Christian should; he has not returned to 
God from whom he had wandered; he has had dealings with 
excommunicated persons; he has done many iniquities; he has 
despised the warnings which, as thou art witness, I sent to him 
for his salvation; he has cut himself off from thy Church, and 
has attempted to rend it asunder; therefore, by thy authority* 
I place him under the curse. It is in thy name that I curse him, 
that all people may know that thou art Peter, and upon thy 
rock the Son of the living God has built his Church, and the 
gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. 

49. The Penance of Henry IV. at Oanossa (1077) 

In his contest with the Pope, Henry's chances of winning were from 
the outset diminished by the readiness of his subjects to take advantage 
of his misfortunes to recover political privileges they had lost under his 
1 Henry III., emperor from 1039 to 1056. 
Med. Hist.— 18 



274 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

vigorous rule. In October, 1076, the leading German nobles, lay and 
clerical, encouraged by the papal decree of the preceding February, 
assembled at Tribur, near Mainz, and proceeded to formulate a plan 
of action. Henry, with the few followers who remained faithful, awaited 
the result at Oppenheim, just across the Rhine. The magnates at last 
agreed that unless Henry could secure the removal of the papal ban 
within a year he should be deposed from the throne. By the Oppen- 
heim Convention he was forced to promise to revoke his sentence of 
deposition against Gregory and to offer him his allegiance. The promise 
was executed in a royal edict of the same month. Seeing that there 
remained no hope in further resistance, and hearing that Gregory was 
about to present himself in Germany to compel a final adjustment of 
the affair, Henry fled from Speyer, where he had been instructed by 
the nobles to remain, and by a most arduous winter journey over the 
Alps arrived at last at the castle of Canossa, in Tuscany,^ where the 
Pope, on his way to Germany, was being entertained by one of his 
allies, the Countess Matilda. Gregory might indeed already have been 
on the Rhine but that he had heard of the move Henry was making and 
feared that he was proposing to stir up revolt in the papal dominions. 
The king was submissive, apparently conquered ; yet Gregory was loath 
to end the conflict at this point. He had hoped to establish a precedent 
by entering German territory and there disposing of the crown accord- 
ing to his own will. But it waS a cardinal rule of the" Church that a 
penitent sincerely seeking absolution could not be denied, and in his 
request Henry was certainly importunate enough to give every appear- 
ance of sincerity. Accordingly, the result of the meeting of king [Em- 
peror] and Pope at Canossa was that the ban of excommunication was 
revoked by the latter, while the former took an oath fully acknowl- 
edging the papal claims. 

Inasmuch as he had saved his crown and frustrated the design of 
Gregory to cross the mountains into Germany, Henry may be said 
to have won a temporary advantage ; and this was followed within a 
few years, when the struggle broke out again, by the practical expulsion 
of Gregory from Rome and his death in broken-hearted exile (1085). 

1 The castle of Canossa stood on one of the northern spurs of the Apen- 
nines, about ten miles southwest of Reggio. Some remains of it may yet 
be seen. 



THE PENANCE OF HENRY IV. AT CANOSSA 275 

Nevertheless the moral effect of the Canossa episode, and of the events 
which followed, in the long run operated decidedly against the king's 
position and the whole imperial theory. The document below is a 
letter of Gregory to the German magnates giving an account of the 
submission of the king at Canossa, and including the text of the oath 
which he there took. 



Source — ^Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanice Historica Selecta 
(Munchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 33-34. Adapted from translation 
in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle 
Ages (London, 1896), pp. 385-388. 

Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the 
archbishops, bishops, dukes, counts, and other princes of the 
realm of the Germans who defend the Christian faith, greeting 
and apostolic benediction. 

Inasmuch as for love of justice you assumed common cause 
and danger with us in the struggle of Christian warfare, we have 
taken care to inform you, beloved, with sincere affection, how 
the king, humbled to penance, obtained the pardon of absolution 
and how the whole affair has progressed from his entrance into 
Italy to the present time. 

As had been agreed with the legates who had been sent to us 

on your part,^ we came into Lombardy about twenty days before 

the date on which one of the commanders was to come over the 

_, , pass to meet us, awaiting his advent that we 

Gregory's ^ . 

advance into might cross over to the other side. But when the 

uscany period fixed upon had already passed, and we 

were told that at this time on account of many difficulties — 

as we can readily believe — an escort could not be sent to meet 

us, we were involved in no little perplexity as to what would 

be best for us to do, having no other means of coming to you. 

1 The German princes who were hostile to Henry had kept in close touch 
with the Pope. In the Council of Tribur a legate of Gregory took the most 
prominent part, and the members of that body had invited the Pope to 
come to Augsburg and aid in the settling of Henry's crown upon a suc- 
cessor. 



276 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

Meanwhile, however, we learned that the king was approach- 
ing. He also, before entering Italy, sent to us suppliant legates, 
offering in all things to render satisfaction to God, to St. Peter, 
and to us. And he renewed his promise that, besides amending 
his way of living, he would observe all obedience if only he might 
deserve to obtain from us the favor of absolution and the apos- 
tolic benediction. When, after long postponing a decision and 
holding frequent consultations, we, through all the envoys who 
Henry at passed, had severely taken him to task for his 

Canossa excesses, he came at length of his own accord, 

with a few followers, showing nothing of hostility or boldness, 
to the town of Canossa where we were tarrying. And there, 
having laid aside all the belongings of royalty, wretchedly, with 
bare feet and clad in wool, he continued for three days to stand 
before the gate of the castle. Nor did he desist from imploring 
with many tears, the aid and consolation of the apostolic mercy 
until he had moved all of those who were present there, and 
whom the report of it reached, to such pity and depth of com- 
passion that, interceding for him with many prayers and tears, 
all wondered indeed at the unaccustomed hardness of our heart, 
while some actually cried out that we were exercising, not the 
dignity of apostolic severity, but the cruelty, as it were, of a 
tyrannical madness. 

Finally, won by the persistency of his suit and by the con- 
stant supplications of all who were present, we loosed the chain 
of the anathema ^ and at length received him into the favor of 
communion and into the lap of the holy mother Church, those 
being accepted as sponsors for him whose names are written 
below. 

Having thus accomplished these matters, we desire at the first 
opportunity to cross over to your country in order that, by 
God's aid, we may more fully arrange all things for the peace 

1 Revoked the ban of excommunication. The anathema was a solemn 
curse by an ecclesiastical authority. 



THE PENANCE OF HENRY IV. AT CANOSSA 277 

of the Church and the concord of the kingdom, as has long 
been our wish. For we desire, beloved, that you should know 
Greg-orv's Dur- ^^^y^^^^ ^ doubt that the whole question at issue 
pose to visit is as 3^et so little cleared up — as you can learn 
from the sponsors mentioned — that both our 
coming and the concurrence of your counsels are extremely 
necessary. Wherefore strive ye all to continue in the faith in 
which you have begun and in the love of justice; and know that 
we are not otherwise committed to the king save that, by word 
alone, as is our custom, we have said that he might have hopes 
from us in those matters in which, without danger to his soul 
or to our own, we might be able to help him to his salvation and 
honor, either through justice or through mercy. 



Oath of King Henry 

I, King Henry, on account of the murmuring and enmity 
which the archbishops and bishops, dukes, counts and other 
princes of the realm of the Germans, and others who follow them 
in the same matter of dissension, bring to bear against me, will, 
within >the term which our master Pope Gregory has constituted, 
either do justice according to his judgment or conclude peace 
according to his counsels — unless an absolute impediment should 
stand in his way or in mine. And on the removal of this impedi- 
ment I shall be ready to continue in the same course. Likewise, 
if that same lord Pope Gregory shall wish to go beyond the 
mountains [i.e., into Germany], or to any other part of the 
world, he himself, as well as those who shall be in his escort or 
following, or who are sent by him, or come to him from any parts 
of the world whatever, shall be secure while going, remaining, 
or returning, on my part, and on the part of those whom I can 
constrain, from every injury to life or limb, or from capture. 
Nor shall he, by my consent, meet any other hindrance that is 
contrary to his dignity; and if any such be placed in his way I 



278 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

will aid him according to my ability. So help me God and this 
holy gospel. 

50. The Concordat of Worms (1122) 

The veteran Emperor Henry IV. died at Lifege in 1106 and was suc- 
ceeded by his son, Henry V. The younger Henry had some months be- 
fore been prompted by Pope Paschal II. to rebel against his father and, 
succeeding in this, had practically established himself on the throne 
before his legitimate time. Pope Paschal expected the son to be more 
submissive than the father had been and in 1106 issued a decree re- 
newing the prohibition of lay investiture. Outside of Germany this 
evil had been brought almost to an end and, now that the vigorous 
Henry IV. was out of the way, the Pope felt that the time had come to 
make the reform complete throughout Christendom. But in this he 
was mistaken, for Henry V. proved almost as able and fully as deter- 
mined a power to contend with as had been his father. In fact, the new 
monarch could command a much stronger army, and he was in no wise 
loath to use it. In 1110 he led a host of thirty thousand men across 
the Alps, compelled the submission of the north Italian towns, and 
marched on Rome. The outcome was a secret compact (February 4, 
1111) by which the king, on the one hand, was to abandon all claim to the 
right of investiture and the Pope, on the other, was to see that the eccle- 
siastical princes of the Empire (bishops and abbots holding large tracts 
of land) should give up all the lands which they had received by royal 
grant since the days of Charlemagne. The abandonment of investiture 
looked like a surrender on the part of Henry, but in reality all that he 
wanted was direct control over all the lands of the Empire, and if the 
ecclesiastical princes were to be dispossessed of these he cared little or 
nothing about having a part in the mere religious ceremony. This 
settlement was rendered impossible, however, by the attitude of the 
princes themselves, who naturally refused to be thus deprived of their 
landed property and chief source of income. The Pope was then forced 
to make a second compact surrendering the full right of investiture to 
the imperial authority, and Henry also got the coveted imperial corona- 
tion. But his triumph was short-lived. Rebellions among the German 
nobles robbed him of his strength and after years of wearisome bicker- 



THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS 279 

ings and pfetty conflicts he again came to the point where he was wiUing 
to compromise. Calixtus II., who became pope in 1119, was similarly 
inclined. 

Accordingly, in a diet at Worms, in 1122, the whole problem 
was taken up for settlement, and happily this time with success. The 
documents translated below contain the concessions made mutually by 
the two parties. Calixtus, in brief, grants that the elections of bishops 
and abbots may take place in the presence -of the Emperor, or of his 
agents, and that the Emperor should have the right to invest them with 
the scepter, i.e., with their dignity as princes of the Empire. Henry, 
on his side, agrees to give up investiture with the ring and staff, i.e., 
with si^iritual functions, to allow free elections, and to aid in the 
restoration of church property which had been confiscated during the 
long struggle now drawing to a close. The settlement was in the nature 
of a compromise; but on the whole the papacy came off the better. 
In its largest aspects the great fifty-year struggle over the question 
of investiture was ended, though minor features of it remained to trouble 
all parties concerned for a long t,ime to come. 



Sources — (a) Text in Monumenta Germanioe Historica, Leges (Pertz ed.), 
Vol. II., pp. 75-76. 

(b) Text in Michael Doeberl, Monumenta Germanioe Historica 
Selecta, Vol. III., p. 60. 

(a) 

I, Bishop Calixtus, servant of the servants of God, do grant 
to thee, by the grace of God august Emperor of the Romans, the 
right to hold the elections of the bishops and abbots of the 
German realm who belong to the kingdom, in thy presence, with- 
The provision out simony, and without any resort to violence; 
for elections ^^ being agreed that, if any dispute arise among 
those concerned, thou, by the counsel and judgment of the 
metropolitan [i.e., the archbishop] and the suffragan bishops, 
shalt extend favor and support to the party which shall seem 
to you to have the better case. Moreover, the person elected 
may receive from thee the regalia through the scepter, without 



280 THE CONFLICT OVER INVESTITURE 

any exaction being levied; ^ and he shall discharge his rightful 
obligations to thee for them.^ 

He who is consecrated in other parts of the Empire^ shall 
receive the regalia from thee through the scepter, within six 
months, and without any exaction, and shall discharge his 
J . rightful obligations to thee for them; those rights 

with the being excepted, however, which are known to 

belong to the Roman Church. In whatever cases 
thou shalt make complaint to me and ask my aid I will sup- 
port thee according as my office requires. To thee, and to all 
those who are on thy side, or have been, in this period of strife, 
I grant a true peace. 

(b) 

In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, I, Henry, by 
the grace of God august Emperor of the Romans, for the love 
of God and of the holy Roman Church and of our lord Pope 
Calixtus, and for the saving of my soul, do give over to God, 
J .. and to the holy apostles of God, Peter and Paul, 

with ring and the holy Catholic Church, all investiture 

through ring and staff; and do concede that in 
all the churches that are in my kingdom or empire there shall 
be canonical election and free consecration. 

All the property and regalia of St. Peter which, from the be- 
ginning of this conflict until the present time, whether in. the 
days of my father or in my own, have been confiscated, and 
J, + J. f which I now hold, I restore to the holy Roman 

of confiscated Church. And as for those things which I do not 
now hold, I will faithfully aid in their restora- 
tion. The property also of all other churches and princes and 

1 That is, the Emperor was to be allowed to invest the new bishop or abbot 
with the fiefs and secular powers by a touch of the scepter, but his old claim 
to the right of investment with the spiritual emblems of ring and crozier 
was denied. 

2 This means that the ecclesiastical prince — the bishop or abbot — in the 
capacity of a landholder was to render the ordinary feudal obligations to 
the Emperor. 

3 Burgundy and Italy. 



THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS 281 

of every one, whether lay or ecclesiastical, which has been lost 
in the struggle, I will restore as far as I hold it, according to the 
counsel of the princes, or according to considerations of justice. 
I will also faithfully aid in the restoration of those things which 
I do not hold. 

And I grant a true peace to our lord Pope Calixtus, and to the 
holy Roman Church, and to all those who are, or have been, on 
its side. In matters where the holy Roman Church shall seek 
assistance, I will faithfully render it, and when it shall make 
complaint to me I will see that justice is done. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE CRUSADES . 

51. Speech of Pope Urban II. at the Council of Clermont (1095) 

Within a short time after the death of Mohammed (632) the whole 
country of Syria, including Palestine, was overrun by the Arabs, and the 
Holy City of Jerusalem passed out of Christian hands into the control of 
the infidels. The Arabs, however, shared the veneration of the Chris- 
tians for the places associated with the hfe of Christ and did not greatly 
interfere with the pilgrims who flocked thither from all parts of the Chris- 
tian world. In the tenth century the strong emperors of the Mace- 
donian dynasty at Constantinople succeeded in winning back all of 
Syria except the extreme south, and the prospect seemed fair for the 
permanent possession by a Christian power of all those portions of the 
Holy Land which were regarded as having associations peculiarly sacred. 
This prospect might have been realized but for the invasions and con- 
quests of the Seljuk Turks in the latter part of the eleventh century. 
These Turks came from central Asia and are to be carefully distinguished 
from the Ottoman Turks of more modern times. They had recently 
been converted to Mohammedanism and were now the fiercest and most 
formidable champions of that faith in its conflict with the Christian 
East. In 1071 Emperor Romanus Diogenes was defeated at Manzikert, 
in Armenia, and taken prisoner by the sultan Alp Arslan, and. as a re- 
sult not only Asia Minor, but also Syria, was forever lost to the Empire. 
The Holy City of Jerusalem was definitely occupied in 1076. The in- 
vaders established a stronghold at Nicsea, less than a hundred miles 
across the Sea of Marmora from Constantinople, and even threatened 
the capital itself, although they did not finally succeed in taking it until 
1453. 

No sooner were the Turks in possession of Jerusalem and the ap- 
proaches thither, than pilgrims returning to western Europe began to 

282 



THE SPEECH OF POPE URBAN II. 283 

tell tales, not infrequently as true as they were terrifying, regarding in- 
sults and tortures suffered at the hand of the. pitiless conquerors. The 
Emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118) put forth every effort to expel 
the intruders from Asia Minor, hoping to be able to regain the territories, 
including Syria, which they had stripped from the EmiDire; but his 
strength proved unequal to the task. Accordingly, in 1095, he sent an 
appeal to Pope Urban II. to enlist the Christian world in a united effort 
to save both the Empire and the Eastern Church. It used to be thought 
that Pope Sylvester II., about the year 1000, had suggested a crusade 
against the Mohammedans of the East, but it now appears that the first 
pope to advance such an idea was Gregory VII. (1073-1085), who in 
response to an appeal of Alexius's predecessor in 1074, had actually as- 
sembled an army of 50,000 men for the aid of the Emperor and had been 
prevented from carrying out the project only by the severity of the 
investiture controversy with Henry IV. of Germany. At any rate, it was 
not a difficult task for the ambassadors of Alexius to convince Pope 
Urban that he ought to execute the plan of Gregory. The plea for aid 
was made at the Council of Piacenza in March; 1095, and during the next 
few months Urban thought out the best method of procedure. 

At the Council of Clermont, held in November, 1095, the crusade was 
formally proclaimed through the famous speech which the Pope himself 
delivered after the regular business of the assembly had been transacted. 
Urban was a Frenchman and he knew how to appeal to the emotions and 
sympathies of his hearers. For the purpose of stirring up interest in the 
enterprise he dropped the Latin in which the work of the Council had 
been transacted and broke forth in his native tongue, much to the de- 
light of his countrymen. There are four early versions of the speech, 
differing widely in contents, and none, of course, reproducing the exact 
words used by the speaker. The version given by Robert the Monk, a 
resident of Rheim's, in the opening chapter of his history of the first 
crusade seems in most respects superior to the others. It was written 
nearly a quarter of a century after the Council of Clermont, but the 
writer in all probability had at least heard the speech which he was try- 
ing to reproduce ; in any event we may take his version of it as a very 
satisfactory representation of the aspirations and spirit which impelled 
the first crusaders to their great enterprise. It has been well said that 
"many orations have been delivered with as much eloquence, and in 



284 THE CRUSADES 

as fiery words as the Pope used, but no other oration has ever been able 
to boast of as wonderful results." 

Source — Robertus Monachus, Historia IherosoLimitana [Robert the Monk, 
"History of the Crusade to Jerusalem"], Bk. I., Chap. 1. Re- 
printed in Recueildes Historiens des Croisades: Historiens Occiden- 
taux (Paris, 1866), Vol. III., pp. 727-728. Adapted from transla- 
tion by Dana C. Munro in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints. 
Vol. I., No. 2, pp. 5-8. 

In the year of our Lord's Incarnation one thousand and 
ninety-five, a great council was convened within the bounds of 
The Council Gaul, in Auvergne, in the city which is called 
of Clermont Clermont. Over this Pope Urban II. presided, 
with the Roman bishops and cardinals. This council was a 
famous one on account of the concourse of both French and 
German bishops, and of princes as well. Having arranged the 
matters relating to the Church, the lord Pope went forth into a 
certain spacious plain, for no building was large enough to hold 
all the people. The Pope then, with sweet and persuasive elo- 
quence, addressed those present in words something like the 
following, saying: 

"Oh, race of Franks, race beyond the mountains [the Alps], 
race beloved and chosen by God (as is clear from many of your 
works), set apart from all other nations by the situation of your 
p jj , country, as well as by your Catholic faith and 

appeals to the the honor you render to the holy Church: to you 
our discourse is addressed, and for you our 
exhortations are intended. We wish you to know what a serious 
matter has led us to your country, for it is the imminent peril 
threatening you and all the faithful that has brought us hither. 

" From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Con- 
stantinople a grievous report has gone forth and has been brought 
repeatedly to our ears; namely, that a race from the kingdom 
of the Persians, an accursed race, a race wholly alienated from 
God, 'a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose 
spirit was not steadfast with God' [Ps., Ixxviii. 8], has vio- 



THE SPEECH OF POPE URBAN II. 285 

lently invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopu- 
lated them by pillage and fire. They have led away a part of the 
The ravages captives into their own country, and a part they 
of the Turks have killed by cruel tortures. They have either 
destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites 
of their own religion. They destroy the altars, after having 
defiled them with their uncleanness. . . . The kingdom of 
the Greeks [the Eastern Empire] is now dismembered by them 
and has been deprived of territory so vast in extent that it could 
not be traversed in two months' time. 

" On whom, therefore, rests the labor of avenging these wrongs 
and of recovering this territory, if not upon you — you, upon 
whom, above all other nations, God has conferred remarkable 
glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to 
humble the heads of those who resist you? Let the deeds of 
your ancestors encourage you and incite your minds to manly 
Urban recalls achievements— the glory and greatness of King 
valor^of the Charlemagne, and of his son Louis [the Pious], 
earlier Franks and of your other monarchs, who have destroyed 
the kingdoms of the Turks ^ and have extended the sway of the 
holy Church over lands previously pagan. Let the holy sepulcher 
of our Lord and Saviour, which is possessed by the unclean 
nations, especially arouse you, and the holy places which are 
now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with the 
filth of the unclean. Oh most valiant soldiers and descendants 
of invincible ancestors, do not degenerate, but recall the valor of 
your ancestors. 

" But if you are hindered by love of children, parents, or wife, 
remember what the Lord says in the Gospel, 'He that loveth 
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me' [Matt., 
X. 37]. 'Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or 

1 The term Turks is here used loosely and inaccurately for Asiatic pagan 
invaders in general. The French had never destroyed any "kingdoms of the 
Turks" in the proper sense of the word, though from time to time they had 
made successful resistance to Saracens, Avars and Hungarians, 



286 THE CRUSADES 

sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for 
my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit 
everlasting life' [Matt., xix. 29]. Let none of your possessions 
restrain you, nor anxiety for your family affairs. For this land 
which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by the seas and sur- 
The crusade as rounded by the mountain peaks, is too narrow 
edv^tor over^' ^^^ your large population; nor does it abound in 
population wealth; and it furnishes scarcely food enough 

for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour 
one another, that you wage war, and that very many among you 
perish in civil strife.^ 

" Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quar- 
rels end; let wars cease; and let all dissensions and controversies 
slumber. Enter upon the road of the Holy Sepulcher; wrest that 
land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. That 
Syria, a rich land which, as the Scripture says, 'floweth with 
country milk and honey' [Num., xiii. 27] was given by 

God into the power of the children of Israel-. Jerusalem is the 
center of the earth; the land is fruitful above all others, like 
another paradise of delights. This spot the Redeemer of man- 
kind has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by His 
sojourn, has consecrated by His passion, has redeemed by His 
death, has glorified by His burial. 

" This royal city, however, situated at the center of the earth, 
is now held captive by the enemies of Christ and is subjected, 
by those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathen. 
She seeks, therefore, and desires to be liberated, and ceases not to 
implore you to come to her aid. From you especially she asks 
succor, because, as we have already said, God has conferred 

1 Among the acts of the Council of Clermont had been a solemn confirma- 
tion of the Truce of God, with the purpose of restraining feudal warfare [sec 
p. 228]. In the version of Urban 's speech given by Fulcher of Chartres, the 
rope is reported as saying that in some parts of France "hardly any one can 
venture to travel upon the highways, by night or day, without danger of 
attack by thieves or robbers; and no one is sure that his property at home 
or abroad will not be taken from him by the violence or craft of the wicked." 



THE SPEECH OF POPE URBAN II. 287 

upon you, above all other nations, great glory in arms. Accord- 
ingly, undertake this journey eagerly for the remission of your 
sins, with the assurance of the reward of imperishable glory in 
the kingdom of heaven." 

When Pope Urban had skilfully said these and very many 
similar things, he so centered in one purpose the desires of all 
Response to who were present that all cried out, "It is the 
the appeal ^jn of Qod! It is the will of God!" When the 

venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven, 
he gave thanks to God and, commanding silence with his hand, said : 

"Most beloved brethren, to-day is manifest in you what the 
Lord says in the Gospel, 'Where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them' [Matt., 
xviii. 20]. For unless God had been present in your spirits, all 
of you would not have uttered the same cry; since, although 
"Deusvult" the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the 
the war cry origin of the cry was one. Therefore I say to you 
that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth 
from you. Let that, then, be your war cry in battle, because it 
is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon 
the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: 
'It is the will of God! It is the will of God! ' 

"And we neither command nor advise that the old or feeble, 

or those incapable of bearing arms, undertake this journey. 

Nor ought women to set out at all without their husbands, or 

brothers, or legal guardians. For such are more of a hindrance 

than aid, more of a burden than an advantage. Let the rich 

aid the needy; and according to their wealth let them take with 

them experienced soldiers. The priests and other clerks [clergy], 

irru X, ij whether secular or regular, are not to go without 
Who should go to ' to 

and who should the consent of their bishop; for this journey 
would profit them nothing if they went without 
permission. Also, it is not fitting that laymen should enter upon 
the pilgrimage without the blessing of their priests. 



288 THE CRUSADES 

"Whoever, therefore, shall decide upon this holy pilgrimage, 
and shall make his vow to God to that effect, and shall offer 
himself to Him for sacrifice, as a living victim, holy and acceptable 
to God, shall wear the sign of the cross of the Lord on his fore- 
head or on his breast. When he shall return from his journey, 
having fulfilled his vow, let him place the cross on his back 
between his shoulders. Thus shall ye, indeed, by this twofold 
action, fulfill the precept of the Lord, as He commands in the 
Gospel, 'He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, 
is not worthy of me' " [Luke, xiv. 27]. 

52. The Starting of the Crusaders (1096) 

The appeals of Pope Urban at Clermont and elsewhere met with ready 
response, especially among the French, but also to a considerable extent 
among Italians, Germans, and even English. A great variety of people 
were attracted by the enterprise, and from an equal variety of motives. 
Men whose lives had been evil saw in the crusade an opportunity of 
doing penance ; criminals who perhaps cared little for penance but much 
for their own personal safety saw in it an avenue of escape from justice ; 
merchants discovered in it a chance to open up new and valuable trade ; 
knights hailed it as an invitation to deeds of valor and glory surpassing 
any Europe had yet known ; ordinary malcontents regarded it as a chance 
to mend their fortunes ; and a very large number of people looked upon 
it as a great spiritual obligation laid upon them and necessary to be 
performed in order to insure salvation in the world to come. By reason 
of all these incentives, some of them weighing much more in the mediaeval 
mind than we can understand to-day, the crusade brought together men, 
women, and children from every part of Christendom. Both of the 
accounts given below of the assembling and starting of the crusaders 
are doubtless more or less exaggerated at certain points, yet in substance 
they represent what must have been pretty nearly the actual facts. 

William of Malmesbury was an English monk who lived in the first 
half of the twelfth century and wrote a very valuable Chronicle of the 
Kings of England, which reached the opening of the reign of Stephen 
(1135). He thus had abundant opportunity to learn of the first crusade 



THE STARTING OF THE CRUSADERS 289 

from people who had actually participated in it. His rather humorous 
picture of the effects of Pope Urban 's call is thus well worth reading. 
Better than it, however, is the account by the priest Fulcher of Chartres 
(1058-1124) — better because the writer himself took part in the cru- 
sade and so was a personal observer of most of the things he undertook 
to describe. Fulcher, in 1096, set out upon the crusade in the company 
of his lord, Etienne, count of Blois and Chartres, who was a man of 
importance in the army of Robert of Normandy. With the rest of Rob- 
ert's crusaders he spent the winter in Italy and arrived at Durazzo in 
the spring of 1097. He had a part in the siege of Nicsea and in the battle 
of Dorylseum, but not in the siege of Ahtioch. Before reaching Jeru- 
salem, in 1099, he became chaplain to a brother of Godfrey of Bouillon 
and was already making progress on his "history of the army of God." 

Sources — (a) Guilielmus Monachi Malmesburiensis, De gestis regum Anglorum 
[William of Malmesbury, "Chronicle of the Kings of Eng- 
land"], Bk. IV., Chap. 2. Adapted from translation by John 
Sharpe (London, 1815), p. 416. 
(b) Fulcherius Carnotensis, Historia Iherosolimitana: gesta Fran- 
corum Iherusalem peregrinantium [Fulcher of Chartres, "His- 
tory of the Crusade to Jerusalem: the Deeds of the French 
Journeying Thither"], Chap. 6. Text in Recueil des Historiens 
des Croisades: Historiens Occidentaux (Paris, 1866), Vol. III., 
p. 328. 

(a) 

Immediately the fame of this great event,^ being spread 
through the universe, penetrated the minds of Christians with 
its mild breath, and wherever it blew there was no nation, how- 
ever distant and obscure, that did not send some of its people. 
This zeal animated not only the provinces bordering on the 
Mediterranean, but all who had ever even heard of the name 
Christian in the most remote isles, and among barbarous nations. 
Then the Welshman abandoned his forests and neglected his 
hunting; the Scotchman deserted the fleas with which he is so 

„ • 1 ■ familiar; the Dane ceased to swallow his intoxi- 
Umversal m- ' 

terestinthe eating draughts; and the Norwegian turned his 
back upon his raw fish. The fields were left by 
the cultivators, and the houses by their inhabitants; all the cities 
1 Pope Urban 's appeal at the Council of Clermont. 
Med. Hist.— 19 



290 THE CRUSADES 

were deserted. People were restrained neither by the ties of 
blood nor the love of country; they saw nothing but God. All 
that was in the granaries, or was destined for food, was left 
under the guardianship of the greedy agriculturist. The journey 
to Jerusalem was the only thing hoped for or thought of. Joy 
animated the hearts of all who set out; grief dwelt in the hearts 
of all who remained. Why do I say "of those who remained " ? 
You might have seen the husband setting forth with his wife, 
with all his family; you would have laughed to see all the penates ^ 
put in motion and loaded upon wagons. The road was too 
narrow for the passengers, and more room was wanted for the 
travelers, so great and numerous was the crowd. ^ 

(b) 
Such, then, was the immense assemblage which set out from 
the West. Gradually along the march, and from day to day, the 
army grew by the addition of other armies, coming from every 
direction and composed of innumerable people. Thus one saw 
an infinite multitude, speaking different languages and coming 
from divers countries. All did not, however, come together into ■ 
The multitude a single army until we had reached the city of 
of crusaders Nicaja.^ What shall I add? The isles of the sea 
and the kingdoms of the whole earth were moved by God, so 
that one might believe fulfilled the prophecy of David, who said 
in his Psalm: "All nations whom Thou hast made shall come 
and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name; " 
and so that those who reached the holy places afterwards said 
justly: "We will worship where His feet have stood." Concern- 

1 The penates of the Romans were household gods. William of Malmes- 
bury here uses the term half-humorously to designate the various sorts of 
household articles which the crusaders thought they could not do without 
on the expedition, and hence undertook to carry with them. 

2 This was in the summer of 1097. The whole body of crusaders, including 
monks, women, children, and hangers-on, may then have numbered three or 
four hundred thousand, but the effective fighting force was not likely over 
one hundred thousand rhen. 

3 The crusaders reached Nicsea May 6, 1097. After a long siege the city 
surrendered, although to the Emperor Alexius rather than to the French. 



THE STARTING OF THE CRUSADERS 291 

ing this journey we read very many other predictions in the 
prophets, which it would be tedious to recall. 

Oh, how great was the grief, how deep the sighs, what weep- 
ing, what lamentations among the friends, when the husband 
left the wife so dear to him, his children also, and all his posses- 
sions of any kind, father, mother, brethren, or kindred! And 
Minffled sor- ^^^ ^^ spite of the floods of tears which those 
row and joy of who remained shed for their friends about to 
depart, and in their very presence, the latter did 
not suffer their courage to fail, and, out of love for the Lord, in 
no way hesitated to leave all that they held most precious, be- 
lieving without doubt that they would gain; an hundred-fold 
in receiving the recompense which God has promised to those 
who love Him. 

Then the husband confided to his wife the time of his return 
and assured her that, if he lived, by God's grace he would return 
to her. He commended her to the Lord, gave her a kiss, and, 
weeping, promised to return. But the latter, who feared that 
she would never see him again, overcome with grief, was unable 
to stand, fell as if lifeless to the ground, and wept over her dear 
one whom she was losing in life, as if he were already dead. 
He, then, as if he had no pity (nevertheless he was filled with 
pity) and was not moved by the grief of his friends (and yet he 
was secretly moved), departed with a firm purpose. The sadness 
was for those who remained, and the joy for those who departed. 
What more can we say? "This is the Lord's doings, and it is 
marvelous in our eyes." 

53. A Letter from a Crusader to his Wife 

One of the most important groups of sources on the crusades is the 
large.'body of letters which has come down to us, written by men who 
had an actual part in the various expeditions. These letters, addressed 
to parents, wives, children, vassals, or friends, are valuable alike for 
the facts which they contain and for the revelation they give of the spirit 



292 THE CRUSADES 

and motives 'of the crusaders. A considerable collection of the letters, 
in English translation, may be found in Roger de Hoveden's Annals of 
English History, Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History, and Matthew 
Paris's English History (all in the Bohn Library) ; also in Michaud's 
History of the Crusades, Vol. III., Appendix. In many respects the letter 
given below, written at Antioch by Count Stephen of Blois to his wife 
Adele, under date of March 29, 1098, is unexcelled in all the records of 
mediaeval letter-writing. Count Stephen (a brother-in-law of Robert 
of Normandy, who was a son of William the Conqueror) was one of the 
wealthiest and most popular French noblemen who responded to Pope 
Urban 's summons at Clermont. At least three of his letters to his wife 
survive, of which the one here given is the third in order of time. 
It discloses the ordinary human sentiments of the crusader and makes 
us feel that, unlike the modern man as he was, he yet had very much 
in common with the people of to-day and of all ages. He was at the 
same time a bold fighter and a tender husband, a religious enthusiast 
and a practical man of affairs. When the letter was written, the siege 
of Antioch had been in progress somewhat more than five months; it 
continued until the following June, when it ended in the capture of the 
city by the crusaders. Count Stephen was slain in the battle of Ramleh 
in 1102. 

Source — D'Achery, Spicilegium ["Gleanings"], 2d edition, Vol. III., pp. 430- 
433. Adapted from translation by Dana C. Munro in Univ. of 
Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. I., No. 4, pp. 5-8. 

Count Stephen to Adele, his sweetest and most amiable wife, 
to his dear children, and to all his vassals of all ranks, — his 
greeting and blessing. 

You may be very sure, dearest, that the messenger whom I 
sent to give you pleasure left me before Antioch safe and un- 
harmed and, through God's grace, in the greatest prosperity. 
And already at that time, together with all the chosen army of 

« i. oi. 1- Christ, endowed with great valor by Him, we 
Count Stephen ' ° -^ . ' 

reports pros- have been continually advancing for twenty-three 

weeks toward the home of our Lord Jesus. You 

may know for certain, my beloved, that of gold, silver, and 



A LETTER FROM A CRUSADER TO HIS WIFE 293 

many other kind of riches I now have twice as much as your 
love had assigned to me when I left you. For all our princes, 
with the common consent of the whole army, though against my 
own wishes, have made me up to the present time the leader, 
chief, and director of their whole expedition. 

Doubtless you have heard that after the capture of the city 
of Nicsea we fought a great battle with the treacherous Turks 
and, by God's aid, conquered them.^ Next we conquered for the 
Lord all Romania, and afterwards Cappadocia.^ We had learned 
that there was a certain Turkish prince, Assam, dwelling in 
Cappadocia; so we directed our course thither. We conquered 
_, . , . all his castles by force and compelled him to flee 

ments of the to a certain very strong castle situated on a high 
rock. We also gave the land of that Assam to 
one of our chiefs, and in order that he might conquer the prince 
we left there with him many soldiers of Christ. Thence, con- 
tinually following the wicked Turks, we drove them through the 
midst of Armenia,^ as far as the great river Euphrates. Having 
left all their baggage and beasts of burden on the bank, they fled 
across the river into Arabia. 

The bolder of the Turkish soldiers, indeed, entering Syria, 
hastened by forced marches night and day, in order to be able 
to enter the royal city of Antioch before our approach.^ Hear- 
ing of this, the whole army of God gave due praise and thanks 
to the all-powerful Lord. Hastening with great joy to this 
The arrival at chief city of Antioch, we besieged it and there 
Antioch (9.091) j^^^^ ^^ great number of conflicts with the Turks; 
and seven times we fought with the citizens of the city and with 

1 Tliis battle — the first pitched contest between the crusader and the 
Turk — was fought at Dorylseum, southeast of Nica;a. 

2 Romania (or the sultanate of Roum) and Cappadocia were regions in 
northern Asia Minor. 

3 The country immediately southeast of the Black Sea. 

4 Antioch was one of the largest and most important cities of the East. 
It had been girdled with enormous walls by Justinian and was a strategic 
position of the greatest value to any power which would possess Syria and 
Palestine. The siege of the city by the crusaders began October 21, 1097. 



294 THE CRUvSADES 

the innumerable troops all the time coming to their aid. The lat- 
ter we rushed out to meet and fought with the fiercest courage 
under the leadership of Christ. And in all these seven battles, 
by the aid of the Lord God, we conquered and most assuredly 
killed an innumerable host of them. In those battles, indeed, 
and in very many attacks made upon the city, many of our 
brethren and followers were killed and their souls were borne to 
the joys of paradise. 

We found the city of Antioch very extensive, fortified with the 
greatest strength and almost impossible to be taken. In addi- 
tion, more than 5,000 bold Turkish soldiers had entered the city, 
not counting the Saracens, Publicans, Arabs, Turcopolitans, 
Syrians, Armenians, and other different races of whom an in- 
finite multitude had gathered together there. In fighting against 
The beginning these enemies of God and of us we have, by God's 
of the siege grace, endured many sufferings and innumerable 
hardships up to the present time. Many also have already 
exhausted all their means in this most holy enterprise. Very 
many of our Franks, indeed, would have met a bodily death 
from starvation, if the mercy of God and our money had not 
come to their rescue. Lying before the city of Antioch, indeed, 
throughout the whole winter we suffered for our Lord Christ 
from excessive cold and enormous torrents of rain. What some 
say about the impossibility of bearing the heat of the sun in 
Syria is untrue, for the winter there is very similar to our winter 
in the West. 

I delight to tell you, dearest, what happened to us during Lent. 
Our princes had caused a fortress to be built before a certain 
gate which was between our camp and the sea. For the Turks, 
coming out of this gate daily, killed some of our men on their 
way to the sea. The city of Antioch is about five leagues distant 
from the sea. For this purpose they sent the excellent Bohe- 
mond and Raymond, count of St. Gilles,^ to the sea with only 

1 Bohemond of Tarentum was the son of Robert Guiscard and the leader 



A LETTER FROM A CRUSADER TO HIS WIFE 295 

sixty horsemen, in order that they might bring mariners to aid 
in this work. When, however, they were returning to us with 
Th Ch ■ f <« these mariners, the Turks collected an army, fell 
defeated near suddenly upon our two leaders, and forced them 
to a perilous flight. In that unexpected fight we 
lost more than 500 of our foot-soldiers — to the glory of God. 
Of our horsemen, however, we lost only two, for certain. 

On that same day, in order to receive our brethren with joy, 
and entirely ignorant of their misfortunes, we went out to meet 
them. When, however, we approached the above-mentioned 
gate of the city, a mob of foot-soldiers and horsemen from 
Antioch, elated by the victory which they had won, rushed upon 
us in the same manner. Seeing these, our leaders went to the 
camp of the Christians to order all to be ready to follow us into 
battle. In the meantime our men gathered together and the 
scattered leaders, namely, Bohemond and Raymond, with the 
remainder of their army came up and told of the great misfortune 
which they had suffered. 

Our men, full of fury at these most evil tidings, prepared to 

die for Christ and, deeply grieved for their brethren, rushed upon 

the wicked Turks. They, enemies of God and of us, hastily fled 

before us and attempted to enter the city. But by God's grace 

the affair turned out very differently; for, when they tried to 

... . cross a bridge built over the great river Moscho- 

tory over the lum,^ we followed them as closely as possible, 
Turks 

killed many before they reached the bridge, 

forced many into the river, all of whom were killed, and we also 
slew many upon the bridge and very many at the narrow en- 
trance to the gate. I am telling you the truth, my beloved, 
and you may be assured that in this battle we killed thirty 
emirs, that is, princes, and three hundred other Turkish nobles, 
not counting the remaining Turks and pagans. Indeed the num- 

of the Norman contingent from Italy. Raymond of St. Gilles, count of 
Toulouse, was leader of the men from Languedoc in south France. 
1 The modern Orontes. 



296 THE CRUSADES 

ber of Turks and Saracens killed is reckoned at 1230, but of 
ours we did not lose a single man. 

On the following day (Easter), while my chaplain Alexander 
was writing this letter in great haste, a party of our men lying 
in wait for the Turks fought a successful battle with them and 
killed sixty horsemen, whose heads they brought to the army. 

These which I write to you are only a few things, dearest, of 
the many which we have done; and because I am not able to tell 
you, dearest, what is in my mind, I charge you to do right, to 
watch carefully over your land, and to do your duty as you 
ought to your children and your vassals. You will certainly see 
me just as soon as I can possibly return to you. Farewell. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE GREAT CHARTER 

54. The Winning of the Charter 

The reign of King John (1199-1216) was an era of humiliation, 
though in the end one of triumph, for all classes of the English people. 
The king himself was perhaps the most unworthy sovereign who has 
ever occupied the English throne and one after another of his deeds 
and policies brought deep shame to every patriotic Englishman. His 
surrender to the papacy (1213) and his loss of the English possessions 
on the continent (1214) were only two of the most conspicuous results 
of his weakness and mismanagement. Indeed it was not these that 
touched the Enghsh people most closely, for after all it was rather their 
pride than their real interests that suffered by the king's homage to 
Innocent III. and his bitter defeat at Bouvines. Worse than these 
things were the heavy taxes and the illegal extortions of money, in 
which John went far beyond even his unscrupulous brother and prede- 
cessor, Richard. The king's expenses were very heavy, the more so by 
reason of his French wars, and to meet them he devised all manner of 
schemes for wringing money from his unwilling subjects. Land taxes 
were increased, scutage (payments in lieu of military service) was nearly 
doubled, levies of a thirteenth, a seventh, and other large fractions of 
the movable property of the realm were made, excessive fines were 
im]Dosed, old feudal rights were revived and exercised in an arbitrary 
fashion, and property was confiscated on the shallowest of pretenses. 
Even the Church was by no means immune from the king's rapacity. 
The result of these high-handed measures was that all classes of the 
people — barons, clergy, and commons — ^were driven into an attitude 
of open protest. The leadership against the king fell naturally to the 
barons and it was directly in consequence of their action that John was 
brought, in 1215, to grant the Great Charter and to pledge himself to 
govern thereafter according to the ancient and just laws of the kingdom. 

297 



298 THE GREAT CHARTER 

The account of the winning of the Charter given below comes from 
the hand of Roger of Wendover, a monk of St. Albans, a monastery in 
Hertfordshire which was famous in the thirteenth century for its group 
of historians and annahsts. It begins with the meeting of the barons at 
St. Edmimds in Suffolk late in November, 1214, and tells the story to 
the granting of the Charter at Ruimymede, June 15, 1215. On this sub- 
ject, as well as on the entire period of English history from 1189 to 
1235, Roger of Wendover is our principal contemporary authority. 

Source — Rogerus de Wendover, Chronica Majara, sive lAher qui dicitur 
Flores Historiarum [Roger of Wendover, "Greater Chronicle, or the 
Book which is called the Flowers of History"]. Translated by 
J. A. Giles (London, 1849), Vol. II., pp. 303-324 passim. 

About this time the earls and barons of England assembled 
at St. Edmunds, as if for religious duties, although it was 
for another reason; ^ for after they had discoursed together 
secretly for a time, there was placed before them the charter of 
King Henry the First, which they had received, as mentioned 
before, in the city of London from Stephen, archbishop of Canter- 
bury.^ This charter contained certain liberties and laws granted 
to the holy Church as well as to the nobles of the kingdom, be- 
sides some liberties which the king added of his own accord. 
All therefore assembled in the church of St. Edmund, the king 
and martyr, and, commencing with those of the highest rank, 
they all swore on the great altar that, if the king refused to 
A conference grant these liberties and laws, they themselves 
barons'^affainst "^o^^*^ withdraw from their allegiance to him. 
King John and make war on him until he should, by a 

charter under his own seal, confirm to them everything that they 
required; and finally it was unanimously agreed that, after 
Christmas, they should all go together to the king and demand 

1 The barons attended the ineeting under the pretense of making a religious 
pilgrimage. 

-This charter, granted at the coronation of Henry I. in 1100, contained 
a renunciation of the evil practices which had marked the government of 
William the Conqueror and William Rufus. It was from this document 
mainly that the barons in 1215 drew their constitutional programme. 



THE WINNING OF THE CHARTER 299 

the confirmation of tlie aforesaid liberties to them, and that 
they should in the meantime provide themselves with horses 
and arms, so that if the king should endeavor to depart from 
his oath they might, by taking his castles, compel him to satisfy 
their demands; and having arranged this, each man returned 
home. . . . 

In the yearof our Lord 1215, which was the seventeenth year 
of the reign of King John, he held his court at Winchester at 
Christmas for one day, after which he hurried to London, and 
They demand took up his abode at the New Temple;^ and at 
oi^the old^ibe^- ^^^^ place the above-mentioned nobles came to 
ties him in gay military array, and demanded the 

confirmation of the liberties and laws of King Edward, with 
other liberties granted to them and to the kingdom and church 
of- England, as were contained in the charter, and above-men- 
tioned laws of Henry the First. They also asserted that, at the 
time of his absolution at Winchester,^ he had promised to re- 
store those laws and ancient liberties, and was bound by his 
own oath to observe them. The king, hearing the bold tone of 
the barons in making this demand, much feared an attack from 
them, as he saw that they were prepared for battle. He, how- 
ever, made answer that their demands were a matter of im- 
A truce portance and difficulty, and he therefore asked 

arranged a truce until the end of Easter, that, after due 

deliberation, he might be able to satisfy them as well as the 
dignity of his crown. After much discussion on both sides, the 

1 The Knights Templars, having purchased all that part of the banks of 
the Thames lying between Whitefriars and Essex Street, erected on it a 

. magnificent structure which was known as the New Temple, in distinction 
from the Old Temple on the south side of Holborn. Meetings of Parliament 
and of the king's council were frequently held in the New Temple; here also 
were kept the crown jewels. Ultimately, after the suppression of the Temp- 
lars by Edward II., the Temple became one of England's most celebrated 
schools of law. 

2 This refers to the king's absolution at the hands of Stephen Langton, 
archbishop of Canterbury, July 20, 1213, after his submission to the papacy. 
At that time John took an oath on the Bible to the effect that he would re- 
store the good laws of his forefathers and render to all men their rights. 



300 THE GREAT CHARTER 

king at length, although unwillingly, procured the archbishop of 
Canterbury, the bishop of Ely, and William Marshal, as his sure- 
ties that on the day agreed upon he would, in all reason, satisfy 
them all; on which the nobles returned to their homes. The king, 
however, wishing to take precautions against the future, caused 
all the nobles throughout England to swear fealty to him alone 
against all men, and to renew their homage to him; and, the 
better to take care of himself, on the day of St. Mary's purifica- 
tion, he assumed the cross of our Lord, being induced to this 
more by fear than devotion.^ . . . 

In Easter week of this same year, the above-mentioned nobles 
assembled at Stamford,^ with horses and arms. They had now 
The truce induced almost all the nobility of the whole king- 

at an end dom to join them, and constituted a very large 

army; for in their army there were computed to be two thousand 
knights, besides horse-soldiers, attendants, and foot-soldiers, who 
were variously equipped. . . . The king at this time was 
awaiting the arrival of his nobles at Oxford.^ On the Monday 
next after the octave of Easter,^ the said barons assembled in the 
town of Brackley.^ And when the king learned this, he sent the 
archbishop of Canterbury and William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, 
with some other prudent men, to them to inquire what the laws 

„, ... and liberties were which they demanded. The 

The prehmi- -^ 

nary demands barons then delivered to the messengers a paper, 

of the barons ... , r, i j • x 

contammg m great measure the laws and ancient 

customs of the kingdom, and declared that, unless the king immedi- 
ately granted them and confirmed them under his own seal, they, 

1 The exact day upon which John took the crusader's vow is uncertain. 
It was probably Ash Wednesday (March 4), 1215. The king's object was in 
part to get the personal protection which the sanctity of the vow carried with 
it and in part to enhst the sympathies of the Pope and make it appear that 
the barons were guilty of interfering with a crusade. 

2 On the southern border of Lincolnshire. 

3 On the Thames in Oxfordshire. This statement of the chronicler is in- 
correct. John was yet in London. 

* Octave means the period of eight days following a religious festival. 
This Monday was April 27. 

5 Brackley is about twenty-two miles north of Oxford. 



THE WINNING OF THE CHARTER 301 

by taking possession of his fortresses, would force him to give them 
sufficient satisfaction as to their before-named demands. The 
archbishop, with his fellow messengers, then carried the paper 
to the king, and read to him the heads of the paper one by one 
throughout. The king, when he heard the purport of these 
heads, said derisively, with the greatest indignation, "Why, 
amongst these unjust demands, did not the barons ask for my 
kingdom also? Their demands are vain and visionary, and are 
unsupported by any plea of reason whatever." And at length 
he angrily declared with an oath that he would never grant 
them such liberties as would render him their slave. The prin- 
cipal of these laws and liberties which the nobles required to be 
confirmed to them are partly described above in the charter of 
King Henry,^ and partly are extracted from the old laws of 
King Edward,^ as the following history will show in due time. 

As the archbishop and William Marshal could not by any 
persuasion induce the king to agree to their demands, they 
The castle of returned by the king's order to the barons, and 
besieged^by" duly reported to them all that they had heard from 
the barons the king. And when the nobles heard what John 

said, they appointed Robert Fitz-Walter commander of their 
soldiers, giving him the title of "Marshal of the Army of God 
and the Holy Church," and then, one and all flying to arms, they 
directed their forces toward Northampton.^ On their arrival 
there they at once laid siege to the castle, but after having stayed 
there for fifteen days, and having gained little or no advantage, 
they determined to move their camp. Having come without 
petrarice ^ and other engines of war, they, without accomplish- 
ing their purpose, proceeded in confusion to the castle of Bed- 
ford.^ . . . 

When the army of the barons arrived at Bedford, they were 

1 Henry I.'s charter, 1100. 

2 Edward the Confessor, king from 1042 to 1066. 

3 In the county of Northampton, in central England. 

4 Engines for hurhng stones. 

5 About twenty miles southeast of Northampton. 



302 THE GREAT CHARTER 

received with all respect by William de Beauchamp.^ Messen- 
gers from the city of London also came to them there, secretly 
telling them, if they wished to get into that city, to come there 
immediately. The barons, encouraged by the arrival of this 
agreeable message, immediately moved their camp and arrived 
The city of at Ware. After this they marched the whole 
over to ^e^^ night and arrived early in the morning at the city 
barons of London, and, finding the gates open, on the 

24th of May (which was the Sunday next before our Lord's 
ascension) they entered the city without any tumult while the 
inhabitants were performing divine service; for the rich citizens 
were favorable to the barons, and the poor ones were afraid to 
murmur against them. The barons, having thus got into the city, 
placed their own guards in charge of each of the gates, and then 
arranged all matters in the city at will.^ They then took security 
from the citizens, and sent letters through England to those 
earls, barons, and knights who appeared to be still faithful to 
the king (though they only pretended to be so) and advised them 
with threats, as they had regard for the safety of all their prop- 
erty and possessions, to abandon a king who was perjured and 
who made war against his barons, and together with them to 
stand firm and fight against the king for their rights and for 
peace; and that, if they refused to do this, they, the barons, 
would make war against them all, as against open enemies, and 
would destroy their castles, burn their houses and other build- 
ings, and pillage their warrens, parks, and orchards. . . . 
The greatest part of these, on receiving the message of the 
barons, set out to London and joined them, abandoning the 
king entirely. . . . 

King John, when he saw that he was deserted by almost all, 
so that out of his regal superabundance of followers he retained 

1 The commander of Bedford Castle. 

2 The loss of London by the king was a turning point in the contest. 
Thereafter the barons' party gained rapidly and its complete success was 
only a question of time. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE CHARTER 303 

scarcely seven knights, was much alarmed lest the barons should 
attack his castles and reduce them without difficulty, as they 
The conference would find no obstacle to their so doing. He 
kfnff^and the deceitfully pretended to make peace for a time 
barons with the aforesaid barons, and sent William 

Marshal, earl of Pembroke, with other trustworthy messengers, 
to them, and told them that, for the sake of peace and for the 
exaltation and honor of the kingdom, he would willingly grant 
them the laws and liberties they demanded. He sent also a re- 
quest to the barons by these same messengers that they appoint 
a suitable day and place to meet and carry all these matters into 
effect. The king's messengers then came in all haste to London, 
and without deceit, reported to the barons all that had been de- 
ceitfully imposed on them. They in their great joy appointed 
the fifteenth of June for the king to meet them, at a field lying 
The charter between Staines and Windsor.^ Accordingly, at 
granted at the time and place agreed upon the king and nobles 

came to the appointed conference, and when each 
party had stationed itself some distance from the other, they 
began a long discussion about terms of peace and the aforesaid 
liberties. ... At length, after various points on both sides 
had been discussed, King John, seeing that he was inferior in 
strength to the barons, without raising any difficulty, granted the 
underwritten laws and liberties, and confirmed them by his char- 
ter as follows: — 

[Here ensues the Charter.] 

55. Extracts from the Charter 

No document in the history of any nation is more important than the 
Great Charter; in the words of Bishop Stubbs, the whole of the con- 
stitutional history of England is only one long commentary upon it. Its 
importance lay not merely in the fact that it was won from an unwilling 
sovereign by the united action of nobles, clergy, and people, but also in 

1 Runnymede, on the Thames. 



304 THE GREAT CHARTER 

the admirable summary which it embodies of the fundamental principles 
of English government, so far as they had ripened by the early years of 
the thirteenth century. The charter contained almost nothing that 
was not old. It was not even an instrument, like the Constitution of the 
United States, providing for the creation of a new government. It 
merely sought to gather up within a single reasonably brief document all 
the important principles which the best of the English sovereigns had 
recognized, but which such rulers as Richard and John had lately been 
improving every opportunity to evade. The primary purpose of the 
barons in forcing the king to grant the charter was not to get a new 
form, of government or code of laws, but simply to obtain a remedy 
for certain concrete abuses, to resist the encroachments of the crown 
upon the traditional liberties of Englishmen, and to get a full and defi- 
nite confirmation of these liberties in black and white. Not a new con-, 
stitution was wanted, but good government in conformity with the old 
one. Naturally enough, therefore, the charter of 1215 was based in 
most of its important provisions upon that granted by Henry I. in 1100, 
even as this one was based on the righteous laws of the good Edward 
the Confessor. And after the same maimer the charter of King John, in 
its turn, became the foundation for all future resistance of English- 
men to the evils of misgovernment, so that very soon it came naturally 
to be called Magna Charta — the Great Charter — by which designation 
it is known to this day. 

King John was in no true sense the author of the charter. Many 
weeks before the meeting at Runnymede the barons had drawn up their 
"demands in written form, and when that meeting occurred they were 
ready to lay before the sovereign a formal document, in forty-nine 
chapters, to which they simply requested his assent. This preliminary 
document was discussed and worked over, the number of chapters 
being increased to sixty-two, but the charter as finally agreed upon 
differed from it only in minor details. It is a mistake to think of John 
as "signing" the charter after the fashion of modern sovereigns. There 
is no evidence that he could write, and at any rate he acquiesced in the 
terms of the charter only by having his seal affixed to the paper. The 
original " Articles of the Barons" is still preserved in the British Museum, 
but there is no one original Magna Charta in existence. Duplicate copies 
of the document were made for distribution among the barons, and 



EXTRACTS FROM THE CHARTER 305 

papers which are generally supposed to represent four of these still 
exist, two being in the British Museum. 

The charter makes a lengthy document and many parts of it are too 
technical to be of service in this book; hence only a few of the most im- 
portant chapters are here given. Translations of the entire document 
from the original Latin may be found in many places, among them the 
University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. I., No. 6; 
Lee, Source Book of English History, 169-180; Adams and Stephens, 
Select Documents Illustrative of English Constitutional History, pp. 42-52; 
and the Old South Leaflets, No. 5. 

Source — ^Text in William Stubbs, Select Charters Illustrative of English Con- 
stitutional History (8th ed., Oxford, 1895), pp. 296-306. Adapted 
from translation in Sheldon Amos, Primer of the English Constitu- 
tion and Government (London, 1895), pp. 189-201 passim. 

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, 
duke of Normandy, Aquitane, and count of Anjou, to his arch- 
bishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, 
sheriffs, governors, officers, and to all bailiffs, and his faithful 
subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, 
and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all our an- 
cestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advance- 
ment of Holy Church, and amendment of our Realm, . , . 
have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this our present 
Charter confirmed, for us and our heirs forever: 

1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her 
whole rights, and her liberties inviolable; and we will have them 
Liberties f th ®^ observed that it may appear thence that the free- 
English Church dom of elections, which is reckoned chief and indis- 

nrii Q T* Q ji + o g /I 

pensable to the English Church, and which we 
granted and confirmed by our Charter, and obtained the con- 
firmation of the same from our Lord Pope Innocent III., be- 
fore the discord between us and our barons, was granted of 
mere free will; which Charter we shall observe, and we do de- 
sire it to be faithfully observed by our heirs forever.^ 

1 The charter referred to, in which the liberties of the Church were con- 
Med. Hist.— 20 



306 THE GREAT CHARTER 

2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, 
for us and for our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, 
to be had and holden by them and their heirs, of us and our 
heirs forever. If any of our earls, or barons, or others who hold 
of us in chief by military service,^ shall die, and at the time of his 
The rate death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a re- 
of reliefs jjg£^ ]^g shall have his inheritance by the ancient 
relief — that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl, for a whole 
earldom, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a knight, for 
a whole knight's fee, by a hundred shillings at most; and who- 
ever oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom 
of fees.^ 

3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall 
be in ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance 
without relief and without fine.^ 

12. No scutage ■* or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, un- 
The three less by the general council of our kingdom; ^ ex- 

^^^^ cept for ransoming our person, making our eldest 

son a knight, and once for marrying our eldest daughter; and for 

firmed, was granted in November, 1214, and renewed in January, 1215. 
It was in the natm-e of a bribe offered the clergy by the king in the hope of 
winning their support in his struggle with the barons. The liberty granted 
was particularly that of "canonical election," i. e., the privilege of the cathe- 
dral chapters to elect bishops without being dominated in their choice by 
the king.. Henry I. 's charter (1100) contained a similar provision, but it 
had not been observed in practice. 

1 Tenants in capite, i. e., men holding land directly from the king on con- 
dition of military service. 

2 The object of this chapter is, in general, to prevent the exaction of exces- 
sive reliefs. The provision of Henry I.'s charter that reliefs should be just 
and reasonable had become a dead letter. 

3 During the heir's minority the king received the profits of the estate; 
in consequence of this the payment of relief by such an heir was to be 
remitted. 

* Scutage (from scutum, shield) was payment made to the king by persons 
who owed military service but preferred to give money instead. Scutage 
levied by Jolm had been excessively heavy. 

5 The General, or Great, Council was a feudal body made up of the king's 
tenants-in-chief, both greater and lesser lords. This chapter puts a definite, 
even though not very far-reaching, limitation upon the royal power of taxa- 
tion, and so looks forward in a way to the later regime of taxation by 
Parliament. 



EXTRACTS FROM -THE CHARTER 307 

these there shall be paid no more than a reasonable aid. In like 
manner it shall be concerning the aids of the City of London.^ 

14. And for holding the general council of the kingdom con- 
cerning the assessment of aids, except in the three cases afore- 
said, and for the assessing of scutage, we shall cause to be sum- 
moned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons 
of the realm, singly by our letters. And furthermoi^e, we shall 
The Great cause to be summoned generally, by our sheriffs 
Council ^T^^ baihffs, all others who hold of us in chief, for 
a certain day, that is to say, forty days before their meeting at 
least, and to a certain place. And in all letters of such summons 
we will declare the cause of such summons. And summons being 
thus made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed, 
according to the advice of such as shall be present, although all 
that were summoned come not.^ 

15. We will not in the future grant to any one that he may 
take aid of his own free tenants, except to ransom his body, and 
to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest 
daughter; and for this there shall be paid only a reasonable 
aid.^ 

36. Nothing from henceforth shall be given or takesn for a 
writ of inquisition of life or limb, but it shall be granted freely, 
and not denied.^ 

1 London had helped the barons secure the charter and was rewarded by 
being specifically included in its provisions. 

2 Here we have a definite statement as to the composition of the Great 
Council. The distinction between greater and lesser barons is meiitioned 
as early as the times of Henry I. (1100-1135). In a general way it may be 
said that the greater barons (together with the greater clergy) developed into 
the House of Lords and the lesser ones, along with the ordinary free-holders, 
became the "knights of the shire," who so long made up the backbone 
of the Commons. In the thirteenth centiuy comparatively few of the lesser 
barons attended the meetings of the Council. Attendance was expensive 
and they were not greatly interested in the body's proceedings. It should 
be noted that the Great Council was in no sense a legislative assembly'. 

3 It is significant that the provisions of the charter which prohibit feudal 
exactions were made by the barons to apply to themselves as well as to the 
king. 

* This is an important legal enactment whose purpose is to prevent pro- 
longed imprisonment, without trial, of persons accused of serious cxlme. 



308 THE GREAT CHARTER 

39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised/ or 
outlawed,^ or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we pass 
upon him, nor will we send upon him,^ unless by the lawful judg- 
ment of his peers,^ or by the law of the land.^ 

40. We will sell to no man, we will not deny to any man, 
either justice or right. ^ 

41. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct to go 
out of, and to come into, England, and to stay there and to pass 
as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient 
and allowed customs, without any unjust tolls, except in time 
_, , o of war, or when they are of any nation at war 
commercial with us. And if there be found any such in our 

land, in the beginning of the war, they shall be 
detained, without damage to their bodies or goods, until it be 
known to us, or to our chief justiciary, how our merchants be 



A person accused of miirder, for example, could not be set at liberty under 
bail, but he could apply for a writ de odio et dtia ("concerning hatred and 
malice") which directed the sheriff to make inquest by jury as to whether 
the accusation had been brought by reason of hatred and malice. If the jury 
decided that the accusation had been so brought, the accused person could 
be admitted to bail until the time for his regular trial. This will occur to one 
as being very similar to the principle of habeas corpus. John had been 
charging heavy fees for these writs de odio et dtia, or " writs of inquisition of 
life and limb," as they are called in the charter; henceforth they were to be 
issued freely. 

1 To disseise a person is to dispossess him of his freehold rights. 

2 Henceforth a person could be outlawed, i. e., declared out of the protec- 
tion of the law, only by the regular courts. 

3 That is, use force upon him, as John had frequently done. 

4 The term "peers," as here used, means simply equals in rank. The 
present clause does not yet imply trial by jury in the modern sense. It 
comprises simply a narrow, feudal demand of the nobles to be judged by 
other nobles, rather than by lawyers or clerks. Jury trial was increas- 
ingly common in the thirteenth century, but it was not guaranteed in the 
Great Charter. 

5 This chapter is commonly regarded as the most important in the charter. 
It undertakes to prevent arbitrary imprisonment and to protect private 
property by layingjdown a fundamental principle of government which John 
had been constantly violating and which very clearly marked the line of 
distinction between a limited and an absolute monarchy. 

6 The principle is here asserted that justice in the courts should be open to 
all, and without the payment of money to get judgment hastened or delayed. 
Extortions of this character did not cease in 1215, but they became less exor- 
bitant and arbitrary. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE CHARTER 309 

treated in the nation at war with us; and if ours be safe there, 
the others shall be safe in our dominions.^ 

42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for any one to go 
out of our kingdom and return safely and securely by land or 
by water, saving his allegiance to us (unless in time of war, by 
some short space, for the common benefit of the realm), except 
prisoners and outlaws, according to the law of the land, and 
people in war with us, and merchants who shall be treated as is 
above mentioned.^ 

51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send ouo of the king- 
dom all foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and stipendiaries, who 
are come with horses and arms to the molestation of our people.^ 

60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have 
granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to 
us, all people of our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, shall ob- 
serve, as far as they are concerned, towards their dependents."* 

61. And whereas, for the honor of God and the amendment 

of our kingdom, and for the better quieting the discord that 

, has arisen between us and our barons, we have 
How the char- 
ter was to be granted all these things aforesaid. Willing to 

en orce render them firm and lasting, we do give and grant 

our subjects the underwritten security, namely, that the barons 

1 The object of this chapter is to encourage commerce by guaranteeing 
foreign merchants the same treatment that Enghsh merchants received in 
foreign countries. The tolls imposed on traders by the cities, however, 
were not affected and they continued a serious obstacle for some centuries. 

2 This chapter provides that, except under the special circumstances of war, 
any law-abiding Englishman might go abroad freely, provided only he should 
remain loyal to the English crown. The rule thus established continued in 
effect until 1382, when it was enacted that such privileges should belong 
only to lords, merchants, and soldiers. 

3 During the struggle with the barons, John had brought in a number of 
foreign mercenary soldiers or "stipendiaries." All classes of Englishmen 
resented this policy and the barons improved the opportunity offered by 
the charter to get a promise from the king to dispense with his continental 
mercenaries as quickly as possible. 

4 This chapter provides that the charter's regulation of feudal customs 
should apply to the barons just as to the king. The barons' tenants were to 
be protected from oppression precisely as were the barons themselves. 
These tenants had helped in the winning of the charter and were thus re- 
warded for their services. 



310 THE GREAT CHAllTER 

may choose five and twenty barons of the kingdom, whom they 
think convenient, who shall take care, with all their might, to 
hold and observe, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties 
we have granted them, and by this our present Charter con- 
firmed.^ . . . 

63. . . . It is also sworn, as well on our part as on the 
part of the barons, that all the things aforesaid shall be observed 
in good faith, and without evil duplicity. Given under our hand, 
in the presence of the witnesses above named, and many others, 
in the meadow called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, 
the 15th day of June, in the 17th year of our reign. 

1 The chapter goes on at considerable length to specify the manner in 
which, if the king should violate the terms of the charter, the commission of 
twenty-five barons should proceed to bring him to account. Even the right 
of making war was given them, in case it should become necessary to resort 
to such an extreme measure. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

56. The Character and Deeds of the King as Described by Joinville 

Louis IX., or St. Louis, as he is commonly called, was the eldest son 
of Louis VIII. and a grandson of Philip Augustus. He was bom in 1214 
and upon the death of his father in 1226 he succeeded to the throne of 
France while yet but a boy of twelve. The recent reign of Philip Au- 
gustus (1180-1223) had been a period marked by a great increase in 
the royal power and by a corresponding lessening of the independent 
authority of the feudal magnates. The accession of a boy-king was 
therefore hailed by the discontented nobles as an opportunity to recover 
something at least of their lost privileges. It would doubtless have been 
such but for the vigilance, ability, and masculine aggressiveness of the 
young king's mother, Blanche of Castile. Aided by the clergy and the 
loyal party among the nobles, she, in the capacity of regent, successfully 
defended her son's interests against a succession of plots and uprisings, 
with the result that when Louis gradually assumed control of affairs in 
his own name, about 1236, the realm was in good order and the dangers 
which once had been so threatening had all but disappeared. The king's 
education and moral training had been well attended to, and he arrived 
at manhood with an equipment quite unusual among princes of his day. 
His reign extended to 1270 and became in some respects the most notable 
in all French history. In fact, whether viewed from the standpoint of 
his personal character or his practical achievements, St. Louis is 
generally admitted to have been one of the most remarkable sovereigns 
of mediaeval Europe. He was famous throughout Christendom for his 
piety, justice, wisdom, and ability, being recognized as at once a devoted 
monk, a brave knight, and a capable king. In him were blended two 
(jualities — vigorous activity and proneness to austere meditation — 
rarely combined in such measure in one person. His character may 

311 



312 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

be summed up by saying that he had all the virtues of his age and few 
of its vices. No less cynical a critic than Voltaire has declared that he 
went as far in goodness as it is possible for a man to go. 

Saint Louis being thus so interesting a character in himself, it is very 
fortunate that we have an excellent contemporary biography of him, 
from the hand of a friend and companion who knew him well. Sire de 
JoinviUe's Histoire de Saint Louis is a classic of French literature and 
in most respects the best piece of biographical writing that has come 
down to us from the Middle Ages. Joinville, or more properly John, 
lord of JoinviUe, was born in Champagne, in northern France, probably 
in 1225. His family was one of the most distinguished in Champagne 
and he himself had aU the advantages that could come from being 
brought up at the refined court of the count of this favored district. In 
1248, when St. Louis set out on his first crusading expedition, Join- 
ville, only recently become of age, took the cross and became a follower 
of the king, joining him in Cyprus and there first definitely entering 
his service. During the next six years the two were inseparable com- 
panions, and even after Joinville, in 1254, retired from the king's service 
in order to manage his estates in Champagne he long continued to make 
frequent visits of a social character to the court. 

Joinville 's memoirs of St. Louis were completed about 1309 — proba- 
bly nine years before the death of the author — and they were first 
pubUshed soon after the death of Philip the Fair in 1314. They consti- 
tute by far the most important source of information on the history of 
France in the middle portion of the thirteenth century. Joinville had 
the great advantage of intimate acquaintance and long association with 
King Louis and, what is equally important, he seems to have tried to 
write in a spirit of perfect fairness and justice. He was an ardent 
admirer of Louis, but his biography did not fall into the tempting chan- 
nel of mere fulsome and indiscriminate praise. Moreover, the work is a 
biography of the only really satisfactory type ; it is not taken up with a 
bare recital of events in the life of the individual under consideration, 
but it has a broad background drawn from the general historical move- 
ments and conditions of the time. Its most obvious defects arise from 
the fact that it comprises largely the reminiscences of an old man, which 
are never likely to be entirely accurate or well-balanced. In his dedica- 
tion of the treatise to Louis, eldest son of Philip IV., the author relates 



THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF THE KING 313 

that it had been -nTitten at the urgent soUcitation of the deceased king's 
widow. 

The biography in print makes a good-sized voliune and it is possible, 
of course, to reproduce here but a few significant passages from it. 
But these are perhaps sufficient to show what sort of man the saint- 
king reall}" was, and it is just this insight into the character of the 
men of the Middle Ages that is most worth getting — and the hardest 
thing, as a rule, to get. Incidentally, the extract throws some light 
on the methods of warfare employed by the crusaders and the Turks. 

Source — Jean, Sire de Joinville, Histoire de Saint Louis. Text edited by 
M. Joseph Noel (NataUs de Wailly) and published by the Society 
de rHistoire de France (Paris, 1868). Translated by James 
Hutton under title of SaiM Louis, King of France (London, 1868), 
passim. 

As I have heard him say, he [Saint Louis] was born on the day 
of St. Mark the Evangelist/ shortly after Easter. On that day 
The king's the cross is carried in procession in many places, 

^^*^ and in France they are called black crosses. It 

was therefore a sort of prophecy of the great numbers of people 
who perished in those two crusades, i.e., in that to Egypt, and in 
that other, in the com'se of which he died at Carthage; - for many 
great sorrows were there on that account in this world, and many 
great joys are there now in Paradise on the part of those who in 
those two pilgrimages died true crusaders. 

God, in whom he put his trust, preserv^ed him ever from his 
infanc}' to the very last; and especially in his infancy did He 
preserve him when he stood in need of help, as you will presently 
His early hear. As for his soul, God preser\^ed it through 

tr ainin g ^^^ pJQus instructions of his mother, who taught 

him to believe in God and to love Him, and placed about him 

1 April 25, 1215. 

2 Louis started on his first crusade in August, 1248. After a series of dis- 
asters in EgA-pt he managed to reach the Holy Land, where he spent nearly 
four years fortifjing the great seaports. He returned to France in July, 1254. 
Sixteen years later, in July, 1270. he started on his second crusade. He had 
but readied Carthage when he was suddenly taken ill and compelled to halt 
the expedition. He died there August 25, 1270. Louis was as typical a 
crusader as ever lived, but in his day men of his kind were few; the great era 
of crusading enterprise was past. 



314 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

none but ministers of religion. And she made him, while he was 
yet a child, attend to all his prayers and listen to the sermons 
on saints' days. He remembered that his mother used some- 
times to tell him that she would rather he were dead than that 
he should commit a deadly sin. 

Sore need of God's help had he in his youth, for his mother, 
who came out of Spain, had neither relatives nor friends in all 
the realm of France. And because the barons of France saw that 
the king was an infant, and the queen, his mother, a foreigner, 
they made the count of Boulogne, the king's uncle, their chief, 
and looked up to him as their lord.^ After the king was crowned, 

Tv-^ 1^- J. some of the barons asked of the queen to bestow 
Difficulties at ^ 

the beginning upon them large domains; and because she would 
do nothing of the kind all the barons assembled 
at Corbei.^ And the sainted king related to me how neither 
he nor his mother, who were at Montlheri,^ dared to return to 
Paris, until the citizens of Paris came, with arms in their hands, 
to escort them. He told me, too, that from Montlheri to Paris 
the road was filled with people, some with and some without 
weapons, and that all cried unto our Lord to give him a long 
and happy life, and to defend and preserve him from his 
enemies. 

After these things it chanced, as it pleased God, that great 
illness fell upon the king at Paris, by which he was brought to 
such extremity that one of the women who watched by his side 
wanted to draw the sheet over his face, saying that he was dead ; 
but another woman, who was on the other side of the bed, 
would not suffer it, for the soul, she said, had not yet left the 
Louis takes body. While he was listening to the dispute be- 
the cross tween these two, our Lord wrought upon him and 

quickly sent him health; for before that he was dumb, and could 

1 This was PhiHp, son of Philip Augustus. The lands of the count of Bou- 
logne lay on the coast of the English Channel north of the Somme. 

2 An important church center about seventy miles north of Paris, 

3 A town a few miles south of Paris. 



THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF THE KING 315 

not speak. He demanded that the cross should be given to 
him, and it was done. When the queen, his mother, heard that 
he had recovered his speech, she exhibited as much joy as could 
be; but when she was told by himself that he had taken the cross, 
she displayed as much grief as if she had seen him dead. 

After the king put on the cross, Robert, count of Artois, 
Alphonse, count of Poitiers, Charles, count of Anjou, who was 
afterwards king of Sicily — all three brothers of the king — also 
took the cross; as likewise did Hugh, duke of Burgundy, William, 
count of Flanders (brother to Count Guy of. Flanders, the last 
who died), the good Hugh, count of Saint Pol, and Monseigneur 
Prominent Walter, his nephew, who bore himself right man- 

wlfo^fol^w^ed ^^l^y beyond seas, and would have been of great 
his example worth had he lived. There was also the count of 
La Marche, and Monseigneur Hugh le Brun, his son; the count 
of Sarrebourg, and Monseigneur d'Apremont, his brother, in 
whose company I myself, John, Seigneur de Joinville, crossed 
the sea in a ship we chartered, because we were cousins; and we 
crossed over in all twenty knights, nine of whom followed the 
count of Sarrebourg, and nine were with me. . . . 

The king summoned his barons to Paris, and made them 
?wear to keep faith and loyalty towards his children if anything 
happened to himself on the voyage. He asked the same of me, 
but I refused to take any oath, because I was not his vas- 
sal. . . . 

In the month of August we went on board our ships at the 
Rock of Marseilles. The day we embarked the door of the vessel. 
Embark" ^^® opened, and the horses that we were to take 

the Mediter- with us were led inside. Then they fastened the 
door and closed it up tightly, as when one sinks a 
cask, because when the ship is at sea the whole of the door is 
under water. When the horses were in, our sailing-master 
called out to his mariners who were at the prow: "Are you all 
ready?'' And they replied: "Sir, let the clerks and priests com-e 



316 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

forward." As soon as they had come nigh, he shouted to them: 

"Chant, in God's name!" And they with one voice chanted, 

" Veni, Creator Spiritus." Then the master called out to his men: 

"Set sail, in God's name!" And they did so. And in a little 

time the wind struck the sails and carried us out of sight of 

land, so that we saw nothing but sea and sky; and every day 

the wind bore us farther away from the land where we were born. 

And thereby I show you how foolhardy he must be who would 

venture to put himself in such peril with other people's property 

in his possession, or while in deadly sin; for when you fall asleep 

at night you know not but that ere the morning you may be 

at the bottom of the sea. 

When we reached Cyprus, the king was already there, and we 

found an immense supply of stores for him, i.e., wine-stores and 

granaries. The king's wine-stores consisted of great piles of casks 

of wine, which his people had purchased two years before the 

king's arrival and placed in an open field near the seashore. 

« ^. They had piled them one upon the other, so that 

Preparations j i- r- 

made in Oy- when seen from the front they looked like a 
^^^^ farmhouse. The wheat and barley had been 

heaped up in the middle, of the field, and at first sight looked like 
hills; for the rain, which had long beaten upon the corn, had 
caused it to sprout, so that nothing was seen but green herbage. 
But when it was desired to transport it to Egypt, they broke off 
the outer coating with the green herbage, and the wheat and bar- 
ley within were found as fresh as if they had only just been 
threshed out. 

The king, as I have heard him say, would gladly have pushed 
on to Egypt without stopping, had not his barons advised him 
to wait for his army, which had not all arrived. While the king 
was sojourning in Cyprus, the great Khan of Tartary^ sent 

1 In the early years of the thirteenth century, an Asiatic chieftain by the 
name.of Genghis Khan built up a vast empire of Mongol or Tartar peoples, 
which for a time stretched all the way from China to eastern Germany. 
The rise and westward expansion of this barbarian power spread alarm 



THE CHARACTEK AND DEEDS OF THE KING 317 

envoys to him, the bearers of very courteous messages. Among 
other things, he told him that he was ready to aid him in con- 
quering the Holy Land and in delivering Jerusalem out of the 
hands of the Saracens. The king received the messengers very 
graciously, and sent some to the Khan, who were two years 
absent before they could return. And with his messengers the 
An embassy king sent to the Khan a tent fashioned like a 
from the Khan chapel, which cost a large sum of money, for it 
was made of fine rich scarlet cloth. And the king, in the hope of 
drawing the Khan's people to our faith, caused to be embroid- 
ered inside the chapel, pictures representing the Annunciation of 
Our Lady, and other articles of faith. And he sent these things 
to them by the hands of two friars, who spoke the Saracen 
language, to teach and point out to them what they ought to 
believe. . . . 

As soon as March came round, the king, and, by his command, 
the barons and other pilgrims, gave orders that the ships should 
be laden with wine and provisions, to be ready to sail when the 
king should give the signal. It happened that when everything 
was ready, the king and queen withdrew on board their ship on 
The departure the Friday before Whitsunday, and the king de- 
from Cyprus sired his barons to follow in his wake straight 
towards Egypt. On Saturday ^ the king set sail, and all 
the other vessels at the same time, which was a fine sight to 
behold, for it seemed as if the whole sea, as far as the eye could 

throughout Christendom, and with good reason, for it was with great diffi- 
culty that the Tartar sovereigns were prevented from extending their domin- 
ion over Germany and perhaps over all western Europe. After the first 
feeling of terror had passed, however, it began to be considered that possibly 
the Asiatic conquerors might yet be made to serve the interests of Christen- 
dom. They were not Mohammedans, and Christian leaders saw an oppor- 
tunity to turn thSm against the Saracen master of the coveted Holy Land. 
Louis IX. 's reception of an embassy from Ilchikadai, one of the Tartar khans, 
or sovereigns, was only one of several incidents which illustrate the efforts 
made in this direction. After this episode the Tartars advanced rapidly into 
Syria, taking the important cities of Damascus and Aleppo; but a great de- 
feat, September 3, 1260, by the sultan Kutuz at Ain Talut stemmed the tide 
of invasion and compelled the Tartars to retire to their northern dominions. 
iMay 21, 1249. 



318 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

reach, was covered with sails, and the number of ships, great and 
small, was reckoned at 1,800. . . .^ 

Upon the arrival of the count of Poitiers, the king summoned 
all the barons of the army to decide in what direction he should 
march, whether towards Alexandria, or towards Babylon.^ 
It resulted that the good Count Peter of Brittany, and most of 
the barons of the army, were of the opinion that the king should 
lay siege to Alexandria, because that city is possessed of a good 
_. . . port where the vessels could lie that should bring 

to proceed 'provisions for the army. To this the count of Ar- 
tois was opposed. He said that he could not ad- 
vise going anywhere except to Babylon, because that was the 
chief town in all the realm of Egypt; he added, that whosoever 
wished to kill a serpent outright should crush its head. The 
king set aside the advice of his barons, and held to that of his 
brother. 

At' the beginning of Advent, the king set out with his army to 
march against Babylon, as the count of Artois had counseled 
him. Not far from Damietta we came upon a stream of water 
which issued from the great river [Nile], and it was resolved 
that the army should halt for a day to dam up this branch, so 
that it might be crossed. The thing was done easily enough, 
for the arm was dammed up close to the great river. At the 
passage of this stream the sultan sent 500 of his knights, the 
best mounted in his whole army, to harass the king's troops, 
and retard our march. 

On St. Nicholas's day ^ the king gave the order to march 
and forbade that any one should be so bold as to sally out upon 
the Saracens who were before us. So it chanced that when the 

1 Joinville here gives an account of the first important undertaking of the 
crusaders — the capture of Damietta. After this achievement the king 
resolved to await the arrival of his brother, the count of Poitiers, with addi- 
tional troops. The delay thus occasioned was nearly half a year in length, 
i.e., until October. 

2 This was a co mm on designation of Cairo, the Saracen capital of Egypt. 

3 December 6. 



THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF THE KING 319 

army was in motion to resume the march and the Turks saw 
that no one would sally out against them, and learned from their 
spies that the king had forbidden it, they became emboldened 
A skirmish be- and attacked the Templars,^ who formed the 
ace^ns^and th^'^' advance-guard. And one of the Turks hurled to 
Templars the ground one of the knights of the Temple, 

right before the feet of the horse of Reginald de Bichiers, who 
was at that time Marshal of the Temple. When the latter saw 
this, he shouted to the other brethren : ''Have at them, in God's 
name! I cannot suffer any more of this." He dashed in his 
spurs, and all the army did likewise. Our people's horses were 
fresh, while those of the Turks were already worn out. Whence 
it happened, as I have heard, that not a Turk escaped, but 
all perished, several of them having plunged into the river, 
where they were drowned. . . . ^ 

One evening when we were on duty near the cat castles, they 
brought against us an engine called pierriere,^ which they had 
never done before, and they placed Greek fire ^ in the sling of 
the engine. When Monseigneur Walter de Cureil, the good 

iThe order of the Templars was founded in 1119 to afford protection to 
pilgrims in Palestine. The name was taken from the temple of Solomon, in 
Jerusalem, near which the organization's headquarters were at first es- 
tablished. The Templars, in their early history, were a military order and 
they had a prominent part in most of tlie crusading movements after their 
foundation. 

2 At this point Joinville gives an extended description of the Nile and its 
numerous mouths. King Louis found himself on the bank of one of the 
streams composing the delta, with the sultan's army drawn up on the other 
side to prevent the Christians from crossing. Louis determined to construct 
an embankment across the stream, so that his troops might cross and engage 
in battle with the enemy. To protect the men engaged in building the em- 
bankment, two towers, called cat castles (because they were in front of 
two cats, or covered galleries) were erected. Under cover of these, the work 
of constructing a passageway went on, though the Saracens did not cease to 
shower missiles upon the laborers. 

3 An instrument intended primarily for the hurling of stones. 

4 Greek fire was made in various ways, but its main ingredients were sul- 
phur, Persian gum, pitch, petroleum, and oil. It was a highly inflammable 
substance and when once ignited could be extinguished only by the use of 
vinegar or sand. It was used quite extensively by the Saracens in their 
battles with the crusaders, being usually projected in the form of fire-balls 
from hollow tubes. 



320 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

knight, who was with me, saw that, he said to us: "Sirs, we are 
in the greatest peril we have yet been in; for if they set fire to 
our towers, and we remain here, we are dead men, and if we 
leave our posts which have been intrusted to us, we are put to 
shame; and no one can rescue us from this peril save God. It is 
therefore my opinion and my advice to you that each time they 
discharge the fire at us we should throw ourselves upon our 
elbows and knees, and pray our Lord to bring us out of this . 
danger." 

As soon as they fired we threw ourselves upon our elbows and 
knees, as he had counseled us. The first shot they fired came 
between our two cat castles, and fell in front of us on the open 
place which the army had made for the purpose of damming the 
river. Our men whose duty it was to extinguish fires were all 
ready for it; and because the Saracens could not aim at them 
on account of the two wings of the sheds which the king had 
erected there, they fired straight up towards the clouds, so that 
_ their darts came down from above upon the men. 

make use of The nature of the Greek fire was in this wise, that 
it rushed forward as large around as a cask of 
verjuice,^ and the tail of the fire which issued from it was as big 
as a large-sized spear. It made such a noise in coming that it 
seemed as if it were a thunderbolt from heaven and looked like a 
dragon flying through the air. It cast such a brilliant light that 
in the camp they could see as clearly as if it were daytime, be- 
cause of the light diffused by such a bulk of fire. Three times 
that night they discharged the Greek fire at us, and four times 
they sent it from the fixed cross-bows. Each time that our 
sainted king heard that they had discharged the Greek fire at 
us, he dressed himself on his bed and stretched out his hands 
towards our Lord, and prayed with tears: "Fair Sire God, 
preserve me my people!" And I verily believe that his prayers 
stood us in good stead in our hour of need. That evening, every 

1 An acid liquor made from sour apples or grapes. 



THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF THE KING 321 

time the fire fell, he sent one of his chamberlains to inquire in 
what state we were and if the fire had done us any damage. 
One time when they threw it, it fell close to the cat castle which 
Monseigneur de Courtenay's people were guarding, and struck 
on the river-bank. Then a knight named Aubigoiz called to 
me and said: "Sir, if you do not help us we are all burnt, for 
the Saracens have discharged so many of their darts dipped in 
Greek fire, that there is of them, as it were, a great blazing 
hedge coming towards our tower." 

We ran forward and hastened thither and found that he spoke 
the truth. We extinguished the fire, but before we had done 
so the Saracens covered us with the darts they discharged from 
the other side of the river. 

The king's brothers mounted guard on the roof of the cat 
castles to fire bolts from cross-bows against the Saracens, and 
which fell into their camp. - The king had commanded that when 
the king of Sicily ^ mounted guard in the daytime at the cat 
castles, we were to do so at night. One day when the king of 
Sicily was keeping watch, which we should have to do at night, we 
were in much trouble of mind because the Saracens had shattered 
Progress of our cat castles. The Saracens brought out the 
the conflict pierriere in the daytime, which they had hitherto 
done only at night, and discharged the Greek fire at our towers. 
They had advanced their engines so near to the causeway 
which the army had constructed to dam the river that no one 
dared to go to the towers, because of the huge stones which 
the engines flung upon the road. The consequence was that 
our two towers were burned, and the king of Sicily was so en- 
raged about it that he came near flinging himself into the fire to 
extinguish it. But if he were wrathful, I and my knights, for 
our part, gave thanks to God; for if we had mounted guard at 
night, we should all have been burned. . . . ^ 

1 Charles, count of Anjou — a brother of Saint Louis. 

2 Joinville's story of the remainder of the campaign in Egypt is a long one. 
Enough has been given to show something of the character of the conflicts 

Med. Hist.— 21 



322 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

It came to pass that the sainted king labored so much that 
the king of England, his wife, and children, came to France 
to treat with him about peace between him and them. The 
members of his council were strongly opposed to this peace, and 
said to him: 

" Sire, we greatly marvel that it should be your pleasure to yield 
to the king of England such a large portion of your land, which 
The treaty you and your predecessors have won from him, and 

of Paris, 1259 obtained through forfeiture. It seems to us that if 
you believe you have no right to it, you do not make fitting restitu- 
tion to the king of England unless you restore to him all the con- 
quests which you and your predecessors have made; but if you 
believe that you have a right to it, it seems to us that you are 
throwing away all that you yield to him." 

To this the sainted king replied after this fashion: " Sirs, I am 
certain that the king of England's predecessors lost most justly 
the conquests I hold; and the land which I give up to him I do 
not give because I am bound either towards himself or his heirs, 
but to create love between his children and mine, who are first 
cousins. And it seems to me that I am making a good use of 
what I give to him, because before he was not my vassal, but 
now he has to render homage to me." ^ . . . 

between Saracen and crusader. In the end Louis was compelled to with- 
draw his shattered army. He then made his way to the Holy Land in the 
hope of better success, but the four years he spent there were likewise a 
period of disappointment. 

1 The treaty here referred to is that of Paris, negotiated by Louis IX. and 
Henry III. in 1259. By it the EngUsh king renounced his claim to Normandy, 
Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou, while Louis IX. ceded to Henry the 
Limousin, Perigord, and part of Saintonge, besides the reversion of Agenais 
and Quercy. The territories thus abandoned by the French were to be an- 
nexed to the duchy of Guienne, for which Henry III. was to render homage 
to the French king, just as had been rendered by the Enghsh sovereigns 
before the conquests of PhiHp Augustus. Manifestly Louis IX. 's chief motive 
in yielding possession of lands he regarded as properly his was to secure peace 
with England and to get the homage of the English king for Guienne. For 
upwards of half a century the relations of England and France had been 
strained by reason of the refusal of Henry III. to recognize the conquests of 
Philip Augustus and to render the accustomed homage. The treaty of Paris 
was important because it regulated the relations of France and England to 
the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War. It undertook to perpetuate the 



THE CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF THE KING 323 

After the king's return from beyond sea, he lived so devoutly 
that he never afterwards wore furs pi different colors, nor min- 
never,^ nor scarlet cloth, nor gilt stirrups or spurs. His dress 
was of camlet ^ and of a dark blue cloth ; the linings of his cover- 
lets and garments were of doeskin or hare-legs. 

When rich men's minstrels entered the hall after the repast, 
bringing with them their viols, he waited to hear grace until the 
The kinff's minstrel had finished his chant; then he rose and 

personal the priests who said grace stood before him. When 

we were at his court in a private way,^ he used to 
sit at the foot of his bed, and when the Franciscans and Domin- 
icans "* who were there spoke of a book that would give him pleas- 
ure, he would say to them: "You shall not read to me, for, after 
eating, there is no book so pleasant as quolihets,'^ — that is, that 
every one should say what he likes. When men of quality dined 
with him, he made himself agreeable to them. 

Many a time it happened that in the summer he would go 

and sit down in the wood at Vincennes,^ with his back to an oak, 

and make us take our seats around him. And all those who had 

complaints to make came to him, without hindrance from ushers 

or other folk. Then he asked them with his own lips: " Is there 

any one here who has a cause?" ^ Those who had a cause stood 

„. . .^. up, when he would say to them: "Silence all, 

His primitive ^' -^ ' 

method of dis- and you shall be dispatched one after the other." 

Then he would call Monseigneur de Fontaines, or 

Monseigneur Geoffrey de Villette, and would say to one of 

old division of French soil between the English and French monarchs — an 
arrangement always fruitful of discord and destined, more than anything else, 
to bring on the great struggle of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries be- 
tween the two nations [see p. 417 ff.]. 

1 A fur much esteemed in the Middle Ages. It is not known whether it 
was the fur of a single animal or of several kinds combined. 

2 A woven fabric made of camel's hair. 

3 After his retirement from the royal service in 1254 Joinville frequently 
made social visits at Louis's court. 

4 On the Franciscans and Dominicans [see p. 360]. 

•5 To the east from Paris — now a suburb of that city. The chateau of 
Vincennes was one of the favorite royal residences. 
6 That is, a case in law. 



324 THE REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS 

them: "Dispose of this case for me." When he saw anything to 
amend in the words of those who spoke for others, he would cor- 
rect it with his own hps. Sometimes in summer I have seen him, 
in order to administer justice to the people, come into the garden 
of Paris dressed in a camlet coat, a surcoat of woollen stuff, 
without sleeves, a mantle of black taffety around his neck, his 
hair well combed and without coif, a hat with white peacock's 
feathers on his head. Carpets were spread for us to sit down 
upon around him, and all the people who had business to dis- 
patch stood about in front of him. Then he would have it 
dispatched in the same manner as I have already described in 
the wood of Vincennes. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

67. Some Twelfth Century Town Charters 

In the times of the CaroHngians the small and scattered towns and 
villages of western Europe, particularly of France, were inhabited 
mainly by serfs and villeins, i.e., by a dependent rather than an inde- 
pendent population. With scarcely an exception, these urban centers 
belonged to the lords of the neighboring lands, who administered their 
affairs through mayors, provosts, bailiffs, or other agents, collected from 
them seigniorial dues as from the rural peasantry, and, in short, took 
entire charge of matters of justice, finance, military obligations, and 
industrial arrangements. There was no local self-government, nothing 
in the way of municipal organization separate from the feudal regime, 
and no important burgher class as distinguished from the agricultural 
laborers. By the twelfth century a great transformation is apparent. 
France has come to be dotted with strong and often largely independent 
municipalities, and a powerful class of bourgeoisie, essentially anti- 
feudal in character, has risen to play an increasing part in the nation's 
political and economic life. In these new municipalities there is a larger 
measure of freedom of person, security of property, and rights of self- 
government than Europe had known since the days of Charlemagne, 
perhaps even since the best period of the Roman Empire. 

The reason for this transformation — in other words, the origin of these 
new municipal centers — has been variously explained. One theory is 
that the municipal system of the Middle Ages was essentially a survival 
of that which prevailed in western Europe under the fostering influence 
of Rome. The best authorities now reject this view, for there is every 
reason to believe that, speaking generally, the barbarian invasions and 
feudaUsm practically crushed out the municipal institutions of the Em- 
pire, Another theory ascribes the origin of mediaeval municipal govern- 

325 



326 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

ment to the merchant and craft guilds, particularly the former; but 
there is little evidence to support the view. Undeniably the guild was 
an important factor in drawing groups of burghers together and forming 
centers of combination against local lords, but it was at best only one 
of several forces tending to the growth of municipal life. Other factors 
of larger importance were the military and the commercial. On the one 
hand, the need of protection led. people to flock to fortified places — 
castles or monasteries — and settle in the neighborhood; on the other, 
the growth of commerce and industry, especially after the eleventh 
century, caused strategic places like the intersection of great highways 
and rivers to become seats of permanent and growing population. The 
towns which thus sprang up in response to new conditions and necessities 
in time took on a political as well as a commercial and industrial char- 
acter, principally through the obtaining of charters from the neighboring 
lords, defining the measure of independence to be enjoyed and the re- 
spective rights of lord and town. Charters of the sort were usually 
granted by the lord, not merely because requested by the burghers, 
but because they were paid for and constituted a valuable source of 
revenue. Not infrequently, however, a charter was wrested from an 
unwilling lord through open warfare. It was in the first half of the 
twelfth century that town charters became common. As a rule they 
were obtained by the larger towns (it should be borne in mind that a 
population of 10,000 was large in the twelfth century), but not neces- 
sarily so, for many villages of two or three hundred people secured them 
also. 

The two great classes of towns were the villes libres (free towns) 
and the villes franches, or villes de bourgeoisie (franchise, or chartered, 
towns). The free -towns enjoyed a large measure of independence. 
In relation to their lords they occupied essentially the position of vassals, 
with the legislative, financial, and judicial privileges which by the 
twelfth century all great vassals had come to have. The burghers 
elected their own officers, constituted their own courts, made their own 
laws, levied taxes, and even waged war. The leading types of free cities 
were the communes of northern France (governed by a provost and one 
or more councils, often essentially oligarchical) and the consulates of 
southern France and northern Italy (distinguished from the communes 
by the fact that the executive was made up of "consuls," and by the 



SOME TWELFTH CENTURY TOWN CHARTERS 327 

greater participation of the local nobility in town affairs). A typical 
free town of the commune type, was Laon, in the region of northern 
Champagne. In 1109 the bishop of Laon, who was lord of the city, 
consented to the establishment of a communal government. Three 
years later he sought to abolish it, with the result that an insurrection 
was stirred up in which he lost his life. King Louis VI. intervened and 
the citizens were obliged to submit to the authority of the new bishop, 
though in 1328 fear of another uprising led this official to renew the old 
grant. The act was ratified by Louis VI. in the text (a) given below. 

The other great class of towns — the franchise toAvns — differed from 
the free towns in having a much more limited measure of political and 
economic independence. They received grants of privileges, or "fran- 
chises," from their lord, especially in the way of restrictions of rights of 
the latter over the persons and property of the inhabitants, but they 
remained politically subject to the lord and their government was partly 
or wholly under his control. Their charters set a limit to the lord's 
arbitrary authority, emancipated such inhabitants as were not already 
free, gave the citizens the right to move about and to alienate property, 
substituted money payments for the corvee, and in general made old 
regulations less burdensome ; but as a rule no political rights were con- 
ferred. Paris, Tours, Orleans, and other more important cities on the 
royal domain belonged to this class. The town of Lorris, on the royal 
domain a short distance east of Orleans, became the common model for 
the type. Its charter, received from Louis VII. in 1155, is given in 
the second selection (b) below. 

Sources — (a) Text in Vilevault and Br^quigny, Ordonnances des Rois de 
France de la Troisieme Race [ " Ordinances of the Kings of 
France of the Third Dynasty"], Paris, 1769, Vol. XI., pp. 185- 
187. 

(b) Text in Maurice Prou, Les Coutumes de Lorris et leur Propaga- 
tion aux XIl" et XIIP Siecles [ '.' The Customs of Lorris and 
their Spread in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries "], 
Paris, 1884, pp. 129-141. 

(a) 
1. Let no one arrest any freeman or -serf for any offense with- 
out due process of law.^ 

1 Such guarantees of personal hberty were not peculiar to the charters of 
communes; they are often found in those of franchise towns. 



328 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

2. But if any one do injury to a clerk, soldier, or merchant, 

native or foreign, provided he who does the injury belongs to the 

_ . . ~ same city as the injured person, let him, sum- 
Provisions of -^ "* ^ ' . . 

the charter of moned after the fourth day, come for justice 
before the mayor and jurats.^ 

7. If a thief is arrested, let him be brought to him on whose 
land he has been arrested; but if justice is not done by the lord, 
let it be done by the jurats.^ 

12. We entirely abolish mortmain.^ 

18. The customary tallages we have so reformed that every 
man owing such tallages, at the time when they are due, must 
pay four pence, and beyond that no more.^ 

19. Let men of the peace not be compelled to resort to courts 
outside the city.^ 

(b) 

1. Every one who has a house in the parish of Lorris shall 
pay as cens sixpence only for his house, and for each acre of land 
that he possesses in the parish.® 

2. No inhabitant of the parish of Lorris shall be required to 
pay a toll or any other tax on his provisions; and let him not 
be made to pay any measurage fee on the grain which he has 
raised by his own labor^ 

1 The chief magistrate of Laon was a mayor, elected by the citizens. In 
judicial matters he was assisted by twelve "jurats." 

2 This is intended to preserve the judicial privileges of lords of manors. 

^ The citizens of the town were to have freedom to dispose of their property 
as they chose. 

4 This provision was intended to put an end to arbitrary taxation by the 
bishop. In the earlier twelfth century serfs were subject to the arbitrary 
levy of the taille (tallage) and this indeed constituted one of their most 
grievous burdens. Arbitrary tallage was almost invariably abolished by 
the town charters. 

5 By "men of the peace" is meant the citizens of the commune. The term 
"commune" is scrupulously avoided in the charter because of its odious 
character in the eyes of the bishop. Suits were to be tried at home in the 
burgesses' own courts, to save time and expense and insure better justice. 

B This trifling payment of sixpence a year was made in recognition of the 
lordship of the king, the grantor of the charter. Aside from it, the burgher 
had full rights over his land. 

7 The burghers, who were often engaged in agriculture as well as commerce, 



SOME TWELFTH CENTURY TOWN CHARTERS 329 

3. No burgher shall go on an expedition, on foot or on horse- 
back, from which he cannot return the same day to his home if 
he desires.^ 

4. No burgher shall pay toll on the road to Etampes, to 
Orleans, to Milly (which is in the Gatinais), or to Melun.^ 

5. No one who has property in the parish of Lorris shall forfeit it 
The charter for any offense whatsoever, unless the offense shall 
of Lorns have been committed against us or any of our hotes.^ 

6. No person while on his way to the fairs and markets of 
Lorris, or returning, shall be arrested or disturbed, unless he 
shall have committed an offense on the same day.^ 

9. No one, neither we nor any other, shall exact from the 
burghers of Lorris any tallage, tax, or subsidy.^ 

12. If a man shall have had a quarrel with another, but with- 
out breaking into a fortified house, and if the parties shall have 
reached an agreement without bringing a suit before the provost, 
no fine shall be due to us or our provost on account of the affair.^ 

are to be exempt from tolls on commodities bought for their own sustenance 
and from the ordinary fees due the lord for each measure of grain harvested. 

1 The object of this provision is to restrict the amount of military service 
due the king. The burghers of small places like Lorris were farmers and 
traders who made poor soldiers and who were ordinarily exempted from 
service by their lords. The provision for Lorris practically amounted to an 
exemption, for such service as was permissible under chapter 3 of the 
charter was not worth much. 

2 The Gatinais was the region in which Lorris was situated. Etampes, 
Milly, and Melun aU lay to the north of Lorris, in the direction of Paris. Or- 
leans lay to the west. The king's object in granting the burghers the right to 
carry goods to the towns specified without payment of tolls was to encourage 
commercial intercourse. 

•^ This protects the landed property of the burghers against the crown and 
crown officials. With two exceptions, fine or imprisonment, not confiscation 
of land, is to be the penalty for crime. Hntes denotes persons receiving land 
from the king and under his direct protection. 

4 This provision is intended to attract merchants to Lorris by placing them 
under the king's protection and assuring them that they would not be mo- 
lested on account of old offenses. 

5 This chapter safeguards the personal property of the burghers, as chapter 
5 safeguards their land. Arbitrary imposts are forbidden and any of the 
inhabitants who as serfs had been paying arbitrary tallage are relieved of 
the burden. The noirfinal cen-s (Chap. 1) was to be the only regular payment 
due the king. 

6 An agreement outside of court was allowable in all cases except when 
there was a serious breach of the public peace. The provost was the chief 



330 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

15. No inhabitant of Lorris is to render us the obhgation of 
corvee, except twice a year, when our wine is to be carried to 
Orleans/ and not elsewhere.^ 

16. No one shall be detained in prison if he can furnish surety 
that he will present himself for judgment. 

17. Any burgher who wishes to sell his property shall have 
the privilege of doing so; and, having received the price of the 
sale, he shall have the right to go from the town freely and with- 
out molestation, if he so desires, unless he has committed some 
offense in it. . 

18. Any one who shall dwell a year and a day in the parish of 
Lorris, without any claim having pursued him there, and without 
having refused to lay his case before us or our provost, shall 
abide there freely and without molestation.^ 

35. We ordain that every time there shall be a change of 
provosts in the town the new provost shall take an oath faith- 
fully to observe these regulations; and the same thing shall be 
done by new sergeants ^ every time that they are installed. 

58. The Colonization of Eastern Germany 

In the time of Charlemagne the Elbe River marked a pretty clear 
boundary between the Slavic population to the east and the Germanic 
to the west. There were many Slavs west of the Elbe, but no Germans 
east of it. There had been a time when Germans occupied large portions 

officer of the town. He was appointed by the crown and was charged 
chiefly with the administration of justice and the collection of revenues. 
All suits of the burghers were tried in his court. They had no active part in 
their own government, as was generally true of the franchise towns. 

1 Another part of the charter specifies that only those burghers who owned 
horses and carts were expected to render the king even this service. 

2 This clause, which is very common in the town charters of the twelfth 
century (especially in the case of towns on the royal domain) is intended to 
attract serfs from other regions and so to build up population. As a 
rule the towns were places of refuge from seigniorial oppression and the pres- 
ent charter undertakes to limit the time within which the lord might re- 
cover his serf who had fled to Lorris to a year and a day — except in cases 
where the serf should refuse to recognize the jurisdiction of the provost's 
court in the matter of the lord's claim. 

3 The sergeants were deputies of the provost, somewhat on the order of 
town constables. 



THE COLONIZATION OF EASTERN GERMANY 331 

of eastern Europe, but for one reason or another they gradually became 
concentrated toward the west, while Slavic peoples pushed in to fill the . 
vacated territory. Under Charlemagne and his successors we can dis- 
cern the earlier stages of a movement of reaction which has gone on in 
later times until the political map of all north central Europe has been 
remodeled. During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries large por- 
tions of the "sphere of influence" (to use a modern plirase) which 
Charlemagne had created eastward from the Elbe were converted into 
German principalities and dependencies. German colonists pushed 
dowii the Danube, well toward the Black Sea, along the Baltic, past the 
Oder and toward the Vistula, and up the Oder into the heart of modern 
Poland. The Slavic population was slowly brought under subjection, 
Christianized, and to a certain extent Germanized. In the tenth century 
Henry. I. (919-936) began a fresh forward movement against the Slavs, 
or Wends, as the Germans called them. ,^_Magdeburg, on the Elbe, was 
established as the chief base of operations. The work was kept up by 
Henry's son, Otto I. (936-973), but under his grandson. Otto II. (973- 
983), a large part of what had been gained was lost for a time through a 
Slavic revolt called out by the Emperor's preoccupation with affairs in 
Italy. Thereafter for a century the Slavs were allowed perforce to en- 
joy their earlier independence, and upon more than one occasion they 
were able to assume the aggressive against their would-be conquerors. 
In 1066 the city of Hamburg, on the lower Elbe, was attacked and 
almost totally destroyed. The imperial power was fast declining and the 
Franconian sovereigns had little time left from their domestic conflicts 
and quarrels with the papacy to carry on a contest on the east. 

The renewed advance which the Germans made against the Slavs in 
the later eleventh and earlier twelfth centuries was due primarily to the 
energy of the able princes of Saxony and to the pressure for colo- 
nization, which increased in spite of small encouragement from any 
except the local authorities. The document given below is a typical 
charter of the period, authorizing the establishment of a colony of Ger- 
mans eastward from Hamburg, on the border of Brandenburg. It was 
granted in 1106 by the bishop of Hamburg, who as lord of the region 
in which the ]3roposed settlement was to be made exercised the right 
not merely of giving consent to the undertaking, but also of prescribing 
the terms and conditions by which the colonists were to be bound. 



332 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

As appears from the charter, the colony was expected to be a source 
of profit to the bishop; and indeed it was financial considerations on the 
part of lords, lay and spiritual, who had stretches of unoccupied land at 
their disposal, almost as much as regard for safety in numbers and the 
absolute dominance of Germanic peoples, that prompted these local 
magnates of eastern Germany so ardently to promote the work of 
colonization. 

Source — Text in Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim, AusgewdhUe 
Urkunden zur Erlauterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands 
im Mittelalter ["Select Documents Illustrative of the Constitu- 
tional History of Germany in the Middle Ages"], 3rd ed., Berlin, 
1904, pp. 159-160. Translated in Thatcher and McNeal, A Source 
Book for Mediaeval Histonj (New York, 1905), pp. 572-573. 

1. In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick, 
by the grace of God bishop of Hamburg, to all the faithful in 
Christ, gives a perpetual benediction. We wish to make known 
to all the agreement which certain people living this side of the 
Rhine, who are called Hollanders,^ have made with us. 

2. These men came to us and earnestly begged us to grant 
them certain lands in our bishopric, which are uncultivated, 
_,__.. , swampy, and useless to our people. We have 
ers ask land consulted our subjects about this and, feeling 

that this would be profitable to us and to our 
successors, have granted their request. 

3. The agreement was made that they should pay us every 
year one denarius for every hide of land. We have thought it 
necessary to determine the dimensions of the hide, in order that 
no quarrel may thereafter arise about it. The hide shall be 
720 royal rods long and thirty royal rods wide. We also grant 
them the streams which flow through this land. 

4. They agreed to give the tithe according to our decree, that 
is, every eleventh sheaf of grain, every tenth lamb, every tenth 
pig, every tenth goat, every tenth goose, and a tenth of the 

1 These "Hollanders" inhabited substantially the portion of Europe now 
designated by their name. 



THE COLONIZATION OF EASTERN GERMANY 333 

honey and of the flax. For every colt they shall pay a denarius 
on St. Martin's day [Nov. 11], and for every calf an obol [penny]. 

5. They promised to obey me in all ecclesiastical matters, 
Obedience according to the decrees of the holy fathers, 
the^shop of ^^® canonical law, and the practice in the dio- 
Hamburg cese of Utrecht.^ 

6. They agreed to pay every year two marks for every 100 
hides for the privilege of holding their own courts for the settle- 
ment of all their differences about secular matters. They did 
this because they feared they would suffer from the injustice of 
Judicial foreign judges. ^ If they cannot settle the more 
immumty important cases, they shall refer them to the 
bishop. And if they take the bishop with them for the purpose 
of deciding one of their trials,^ they shall provide for his support 
as long as he remains there by granting him one third of all the 
fees arising from the trial; and they shall keep the other two 
thirds. 

7. We have given them permission to found churches wher- 
ever they may wish on these lands. For the support of the 
priests who shall serve God in these churches we grant a tithe 
of our tithes from these parish churches. They promised that 
the congregation of each of these churches should endow their 
church with a hide for the support of their priest.^ The names 
of the men who made this agreement with us are: Henry, the 
priest, to whom we have granted the aforesaid churches for life; 
and the others are laymen, Helikin, Arnold, Hiko, Fordalt, and 
Referic. To them and to their heirs after them we have granted 
the aforesaid land according to the secular laws and to the terms 
of this agreement. 

1 This was the diocese from which the colonists proposed to remove. 

- That is, judges representing any outside authority. 

3 In other words, if the bishop should go from his seat at Hamburg to the 
colony. 

* In each parish of the colony, therefore, the priest would be supported 
by the income of the hide of land set apart for his use and by the tenth of 
the regular church tithes which the bishop conceded for the purpose. 



334 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

69. The League of Rhenish Cities (1254) 

About the middle of the thirteenth century the central authority of 
the Holy Roman Empire was for a time practically dissolved. Frederick 
II., the last strong ruler of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, died in 1250, and 
even he was so largely Italian in character and interests that he could 
bring himself to give little attention to German affairs. During the 
stormy period of the Interregnum (1254-1273) there was no universally 
recognized emperor at all. Germany had reached an advanced stage of 
political disintegration and it is scarcely conceivable that even a Henry 
IV. or a Frederick Barbarossa could have made the imperial power much 
more than a shadow and a name. But while the Empire was broken up 
into scores of principalities, independent cities, and other political frag- 
ments, its people were enjoying a vigorous and progressive life. The 
period was one of great growth of industry in the towns, and especially 
of commerce. The one serious disadvantage was the lack of a central 
police authority to preserve order and insure the safety of person and 
property. Warfare was all but ceaseless, robber-bands infested the 
rivers and highways, and all manner of vexatious conditions were im- 
posed upon trade by the various local authorities. The natural result 
was the formation of numerous leagues and confederacies for the sup- 
pression of anarchy and the protection of trade and industry. The 
greatest of these was the Hanseatic League, which came to comprise 
one hundred and seventy-two cities, and the history of whose operations 
runs through more than three centuries. An earlier organization, which 
may be considered in a way a forerunner of the Hansa, was the Rhine 
League, established in 1254. At this earlier date Conrad IV., son of 
Frederick II., was fighting his half-brother Manfred for their common 
Sicilian heritage; William of Holland, who claimed the imperial title, 
was recognized in only a small territory and was quite powerless to affect 
conditions of disorder outside; the other princes, great and small, were 
generally engaged in private warfare ; and the difficulties and dangers of 
trade and industry were at their maximum. To establish a power 
strong enough, and with the requisite disposition, to suppress the rob- 
bers and pirates who were ruining commerce, the leading cities of the 
Rhine valley — Mainz, Cologne, Worms, Speyer, Strassburg, Basel, 
Trier, Metz, and others — entered into a " league of holy peace, "to endure 



THE LEAGUE OF RHENISH CITIES 335 

for a period of ten years, dating from July 13, 1254. The more signifi- 
cant terms of the compact are set forth in the selection below. 

Source — ^Text in Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim, Ausgewdhlie 
Urkunden zur Erlauterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands 
im Mittelalter ["Select Documents Illustrative of the Constitu- 
tional History of Germany in the Middle Ages"], 3rd ed., Berlin, 
1904, pp. 251-254. Translated in Thatcher and McNeal, A Source 
Book for Mediaeval History (New York, 1905), pp. 606-609. 

In the name of the Lord, amen. In the year of our Lord 1254, 
on the octave of St. Michael's day [a week after Sept. 29] we, 
the cities of the upper and lower Rhine, leagued together for the 
preservation of peace, met in the city of Worms. We held a 
conference there and carefully discussed everything pertaining to 
Th 1 ae-u ^ general peace. To the honor of God, and of the 

formed at holy mother Church, and of the holy Empire, 

which is now governed by our lord, William, 
king of the Romans,^ and to the common advantage of all, both 
rich and poor alike, we made the following laws. They are for 
the benefit of all, both poor and great, the secular clergy, monks, 
laymen, and Jews. To secure these things, which are for the 
public good, we will spare neither ourselves nor our possessions. 
The princes and lords who take the oath are joined with us. 

1. We decree that we will make no warlike expeditions, except 
those that are absolutely necessary and determined on by the 
wise counsel of the cities and communes. We will mutually 
aid each other with all our strength in securing redress for our 
grievances. 

2. We decree that no member of the league, whether city 
No dealings or lord. Christian or Jew, shall furnish food, 
enemies^orthe ^^^^> ^^ ^^*^ ^^ ^^^ kind, to any one who op- 
league poses us or the peace. 

3. And no one, in our cities shall give credit, or make a loan, 
to them. 

1 All that this means is that the members of the Rhine League recognized 
William of Holland as emperor. Most of the Empire did not so recognize 
him. He died in 1256, two years after the league was formed. 



336 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

4. No citizen of any of the cities in the league shall associate 
with such, or give them counsel, aid, or support. If any one is 
convicted of doing so, he shall be expelled from the city and 
punished so severely in his property that he will be a warning 
to others not to do such things. 

5. If any knight, in trying to aid his lord who is at war with 
us, attacks or molests us anywhere outside of the walled towns 
of. his lord, he is breaking the peace, and we will in some way 
A warning inflict due punishment on him and his possessions, 
to enemies j^q matter who he is. If he is caught in any of 
the cities, he shall be held as a prisoner until he makes proper 
satisfaction. We wish to be protectors of the peasants, and we 
will protect them against all violence if they will observe the 
peace with us. But if they make war on us, we will punish them, 
and if we catch them in any of the cities, we will punish them 
as malefactors. 

6. We wish the cities to destroy all the ferries except those 
in their immediate neighborhood, so that there shall be no 
ferries except those near the cities which are in the league. 
This is to be done in order that the enemies of the peace may be 
deprived of all means of. crossing the Rhine. 

7. We decree that if any lord or knight aids us in promoting 
the peace, we will do all we can to protect him. Whoever does 
not swear to keep the peace with us, shall be excluded from the 
general peace. 

10. Above all, we wish to afl&rm that we desire to live in 
mutual peace with the lords and all the people of the province, 
and we desire that each should preserve all his rights. 

11. Under threat of punishment we forbid any citizen to revile 
the lords, although they may be our enemies. For although we 
wish to punish them for the violence they have done us, yet be- 
fore making war on them we will first warn them to cease from 
injuring us. 

12. We decree that all correspondence about this matter with 



THE LEAGUE OF RHENISH CITIES 337 

the cities of the lower Rhine shall be conducted from Mainz, and 
from Worms ^vith the cities of the upper Rhine. From these 
Mainz and two cities all our correspondence shall be carried 

the^capitals °^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^° have done us injury shall be 
of the league warned. Those who have suffered injury shall 
send their messengers at their own expense. 

13. We also promise, both lords and cities, to send four 

official representatives to whatever place a conference is to be 

_, . held, and they shall have full authority from 

The governing . 

body of the their cities to decide on all matters. They shall 
report to their cities all the decisions of the meet- 
ing. All who come with the representatives of the cities, or who 
come to them while in session, shall have peace, and no judgment 
shall be enforced against them. 

14. No city shall receive non-residents, who are commonly 
called " pfahlburgers," as citizens.^ 

15. We firmly declare that if any member of the league 
breaks the peace, we will proceed against him at once as if he 
were not a member, and compel him to make proper satis- 
faction. 

16. We promise that we will faithfully keep each other in- 
formed by letter about our enemies and all others who may be 
able to do us damage, in order that we may take timely counsel 
to protect ourselves against them. 

17. We decree that no one shall violently enter the house of 
monks or nuns, of whatever order they may be, or quarter them- 
selves upon them, or demand or extort food or any kind of 

1 These " pfahlburgers " were subjects of ecclesiastical or secular princes 
who, in order to escape the burdens of this relation, contrived to get them- 
selves enrolled as citizens of neighboring cities. While continuing to dwell 
in regions subject to the jurisdiction of their lords, they claimed to enjoy 
immunity from that jurisdiction, because of their citizenship in those outside 
cities. The pfahlburgers were a constant source of friction between the 
towns and the territorial princes. The Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV. 
(1356) decreed that pfahlburgers should not enjoy the rights and privileges 
of the cities unless they became actual residents of them and discharged their 
full obligations as citizens. 

Med. Hist.— 22 



338 MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY 

service from them, contrary to their will. If any one does this, 
he shall be held as a violator of the peace. 

18. We decree that each city shall try to persuade each of 
its neighboring cities to swear to keep the peace. If they do not 
The league to clo so, they shall be entirely ciit off from the 
be enlarged peace, so that if any one does them an injury, 
either in their persons or their property, he shall not thereby 
break the peace. 

19. We wish all members of the league, cities, lords, and all 
others, to arm themselves properly and prepare for war, so that 
whenever we call upon them we shall find them ready. 

20. We decree that the cities between the Moselle and Basel 
shall prepare 100 war boats, and the cities below the Moselle 
-_.,. shall prepare 500, well equipped with bowmen, 
preparations and each city shall prepare herself as well as 

she can and supply herself with arms for knights 
and foot-soldiers. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

The modern university is essentially a product of the Middle Ages. 
The Greeks and Romans had provisions for higher education, but noth- 
ing that can properly be termed universities, with faculties, courses of 
study, examinations, and degrees. The word " universitas " in the 
earlier mediaeval period was applied indiscriminately to any group or 
body of people, as a guild of artisans or an organization of the clergy, 
and only very gradually did it come to be restricted to an association 
of teachers and students — the so-called universitas societas magistrorum 
discipulorumque. The origins of mediaeval universities are, in most 
cases, rather obscure. In the earlier Middle Ages the interests of 
learning were generally in the keeping of the monks and the work of 
education was carried on chiefly in monastic schools, where the subjects 
of study were commonly the seven liberal arts inherited from Roman 
days.^ By the twelfth century there was a relative decline of these 
monastic schools, accompanied by a marked development of cathedral 
schools in which not only the seven liberal arts but also new subjects 
like law and theology were taught. The twelfth century renaissance 
brought a notable revival of Roman law, medicine, astronomy, and 
philosophy; by 1200 the whole of Aristotle's writings had become known ; 
and the general awakening produced immediate results in the larger 
numbers of students who flocked to places like Paris and Bologna where 
exceptional teachers were to be found. 

Out of these conditions grew the earliest of the universities. No 

definite dates for the beginnings of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, etc., can 

be assigned, but the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are to be considered 

their great formative period. ' Bologna was specifically the creation of 

the revived study of the Roman law and of the fame of the great law 

teacher Irnerius. The university sprang from a series of organizations 

1 That is, the trivium (Latin grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the quad- 
rivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). 

339 



340 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

effected first by the students and later by the masters, or teachers, and 
modeled after the guilds of workmen. It became the pattern for most of 
the later Italian and Spanish universities. Paris arose in a different 
way. It grew directly out of the great cathedral school of Notre Dame 
and, unlike Bologna, was an organization at the outset of masters rather 
than of students. It was presided over by the chancellor, who had had 
charge of education in the cathedral and who retained the exclusive 
privilege of granting licenses to teach (the licentia docendi), or, in other 
words, degrees.^ Rising to prominence in the twelfth century, especially 
by virtue of the teaching of Abelard (1079-1142), Paris became in time 
the greatest university of the Middle Ages, exerting profound influence 
not only on learning, but also on the Church and even at times on political 
affairs. The universities of the rest of France, as well as the German 
universities and Oxford and Cambridge in England, were copied pretty 
closely after Paris. 

60. Privileges Granted to Students and Masters 

Throughout the Middle Ages numerous special favors were showered 
upon the imiversities and their students by the Church. Patronage and 
protection from the secular authorities were less to be depended on, 
though the courts of kings were not infrequently the rendezvous of 
scholars, and the greater seats of learning after the eleventh century 
generally owed their prosperity, if not their origin, to the liberality of 
monarchs such as Frederick Barbarossa or Philip Augustus. The 
recognition of the universities by the temporal powers came as a rule 
earlier than that by the Church. The edict of the Emperor Frederick I., 
which comprises selection (a) below, was issued in 1158 and is not to 
be considered as limited in its application to the students of any par- 
ticular university, though many writers have associated it solely with 

1 The earliest degrees granted at Bologna, Paris, etc., were those of master 
of arts and doctor of philosophy. "Master" and "Doctor" were practically 
equivalent terms and both signified simply that the bearer, after suitable 
examinations, had been recognized as sufficiently proficient to be admitted 
to the guild of teachers. The bachelor's degree grew up more obscurely. 
It might be taken somewhere on the road to the master's degree, but was 
merely an incidental stamp of proficiency up to a certain stage of advance- 
ment. Throughout mediaeval times the master's, or doctor's, degree, which 
carried the right to become a teacher, was the normal goal and few stopped 
short of its attainment. 



PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO STUDENTS AND MASTERS 341 

the University of Bologna. That the statute was decreed at the solicita- 
tion of the Bologna doctors of law admits of little doubt, but, as 
Rashdall observes, it was "a general privilege conferred on the student 
class throughout the Lombard kingdom." ^ By some writers it is said 
to have been the earliest formal grant of jjrivileges for university stu- 
dents, but this cannot be true as Salerno (notable chiefly for medical 
studies) received such grants from Robert Guiscard and his son Roger 
before the close of the eleventh century. 

Until the year 1200 the students of Paris enjoyed no privileges such 
as those conferred upon the Italian institutions by Frederick. In that 
year a tavern brawl occurred between some German students and 
Parisian townspeople, in which five of the students lost their lives. 
The provost of the city, instead of attempting to repress the disorder, 
took sides against the students and encouraged the populace. Such 
laxity stirred the king, Philip Augustus, to action. Fearing that the 
students would decamp en masse, he hastened to comply with their 
appeal for redress. The provost and his lieutenants were arrested 
and a decree was issued [given, in part, in selection (b)] exempting 
the scholars from the operation of the municipal law in criminal cases. 
Pope Innocent III. at once confirmed the privileges and on his part 
relaxed somewhat the vigilance of the Church. Such liberal measures, 
however, did not insure permanent peace. In less than three decades 
another conflict with the provost occurred which was so serious as to 
result in a total suspension of the university's activities for more than 
two years. 

Sources — (a) Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Leges (Pertz ed.), 
Vol. II., p. 114. Adapted from translation by Dana C. Munro 
in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. II., No. 3, 
pp. 2-4. 

(b) Text in Chartidarium Universitatis Parisiensis ["Cartulary of 
the University of Paris"], No. 1., p. 59. Adapted from trans- 
lation in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, ibid., pp. 4-7. 

(a) 
After a careful i^onsideration of this subject by the bishops, 
abbots, dukes, counts, judges, and other nobles of our sacred 
palace, we, from our piety, have granted this privilege to all 

1 Hastings' Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Ox- 
ford, 1895), Vol. I,, p. 146. 



342 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

scholars who travel for the sake of study, and especially to the 
professors of divine and sacred laws/ namely, that they may 
Security go in safety to the places in which the studies 

resid^mse^^r ^^'® carried on, both they themselves and their 
scholars messengers, and may dwell there in security. 

For we think it fitting that, during good behavior, those should 
enjoy our praise and protection, by whose learning the world 
is enlightened to the obedience of God and of us, his ministers, 
and the life of the subject is molded; and by a special considera- 
tion we defend them from all injuries. 

For who does not pity those who exile themselves through 
love for learning, who wear themselves out in poverty in place 
of riches, who expose their lives to all perils and often suffer 
bodily injury from the vilest men? This must be endured with 
vexation. Therefore, we declare by this general and perpetual 
law, that in the future no one shall be so rash as to venture to 
Regulation inflict any injury on scholars, or to occasion any 
the^^oilection ^^^^ ^° them on account of a debt owed by an 
of debts inhabitant of their province — a thing which we 

have learned is sometimes done by an evil custom.^ And let it 
be known to the violators of this constitution, and also to those 
who shall at the time be the rulers of the places, that a fourfold 
restitution of property shall be exacted from all and that, the 
mark of infamy being affixed to them by the law itself, they 
shall lose their office forever. 

Moreover, if any one shall presume to bring a suit against them 
on account of any business, the choice in this matter shall be 

,. . . given to the scholars, who may summon the 

privileges of accusers to appear before their professors or the 
bishop of the city, to whom we have given juris- 
diction in this matter.^ But if, indeed, the accuser shall attempt 

1 Evidently , from other passages , including students of law as well as teachers. 

2 Greedy creditors sometimes compelled students to pay debts owed by 
the fellow-countrymen of the latter — a very thinly disguised form of robbery. 
This abuse was now to be abolished. 

3 That is, in any legal proceedings against a scholar the defendant was to 



PKIVILEGES GRANTED TO STUDENTS AND MASTERS 343 

to drag the scholar before another judge, even if his cause is a 
very just one, he shall lose his suit for such an attempt. 

Concerning the safety of the students at Paris in the future, 
by the advice of our subjects we have ordained as follows: 

We will cause all the citizens of Paris to swear that if any one 
sees an injury done to any student by any layman,^ he will 
testify truthfully to this, nor will any one withdraw in order not 
to see [the act]. And if it shall happen that any one strikes a 
student, except in self-defense, especially if he strikes the student 
with a weapon, a club, or a stone, all laymen who see [the act] 
Protection shall in good faith seize the malefactor, or male- 

affains° crimes factors, and deliver them to our judge; nor shall 
of violence they run away in order not to see the act, or 

seize the malefactor, or testify to the truth. Also, whether the 
malefactor is seized in open crime or not, we will make a legal 
and full examination through clerks, or laymen, or certain lawful 
persons; and our count and our judges shall do the same. And 
if by a full examination we, or our judges, are able to learn that 
he who is accused, is guilty of the crime, then we, or our judges, 
shall immediately inflict a penalty, according to the quality and 
nature of the crime; notwithstanding the fact that the criminal 
may deny the deed and say that he is ready to defend himself 
in single combat, or to purge himself by the ordeal by water.^ 

Also, neither our provost nor our judges shall lay hands on a 
student for any offense whatever; nor shall they place him in 

choose whether he would be tried before his own master or before the bishop. 
In later times this right of choice passed generally to the plaintiff. 

1 The students of the French imiversities were regarded as, for all practical 
purposes, members of the clergy (derici) and thus to be distinguished from 
laymen. They were not clergy in the full sense, but were subject to a special 
sort of jurisdiction closely akin to that applying to the clergy. 

2 The law on this point was exceptionally severe. The privilege of estab- 
lishing innocence by combat or the ordeal by water was denied, though even 
the provost and his subordinates who had played false in the riot of 1200 
had been given the opportunity of clearing themselves by such means if 
they chose and could do so. 



344 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

our prison, unless such a crime has been committed by the 
student, that he ought to be arrested. And in that case, our 
judge shall arrest him on the spot, without striking him at all, 
unless he resists, and shall hand him over to the ecclesiastical 
judge/ who ought to guard him in order to satisfy us and the 
one suffering the injury. And if a serious crime has been com- 
mitted, our judge shall go or shall send to see what is done with 
the student. If, indeed, the student does not resist arrest and 
yet suffers any injury, we will exact satisfaction for it, accord- 
Scholars to be ^^S ^^ ^^® aforesaid examination and the afore- 
tried and pun- g^id oath. Also our judges shall not lay hands 
ished under 
ecclesiastical on the chattels of the students of Paris for any 

authority crime whatever. But if it shall seem that these 

ought to be sequestrated, they shall be sequestrated and guarded 
after sequestration by the ecclesiastical judge, in order that 
whatever is judged legal by the Church may be done with the 
chattels.^ But if students are arrested by our count at such 
an hour that the ecclesiastical judge cannot be found and be 
present at once, our provost shall cause the culprits to be guarded 
in some student's house without any ill-treatment, as is said 
above, until they are delivered to the ecclesiastical judge. 

In order, moreover, that these [decrees] may be kept more 
carefully and may be established forever by a fixed law, we have 
decided that our present provost and the people of Paris shall 
The oath re- afhrm by an oath, in the presence of the scholars, 
p?ov^ost°and^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ carry out in good faith all the 
people of Paris above-mentioned [regulations]. And always in 
the future, whosoever receives from us the ofhce of provost in 
Paris, among the maugural acts of his office, namely, on the first 
or second Sunday, in one of the churches of Paris — after he has 
been summoned for the purpose — shall affirm by an oath, pub- 
licly in the presence of the scholars, that he will keep in good 

1 A further recognition of the clerical character of the students. 

2 The property, as the persons, of the scholars was protected from seizure 
except by the church authorities. 



FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG 345 

faith all the above-mentioned [regulations].^ And that these 
decrees may be valid forever, we have ordered this document 
to be confirmed by the authority of our seal and by the char- 
acters of the royal name signed below. 

61. The Foundation of the University of Heidelberg (1386) 

Until the middle of the fourteenth century Germany possessed no 
university. In the earlier mediaeval period, when palace and monastic 
schools were multiplying in France, Italy, and England, German cul- 
ture was too backward to permit of a similar movement beyond the 
Rhine; and later, when in other countries universities were springing 
into prosperity, political dissensions long continued to thwart such 
enterprises among the Germans. Germany was not untouched by the 
intellectual movements of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but her 
young men were obliged to seek their learning at Oxford or Paris or 
Bologna. The first German university was that of Prague, in Bohemia, 
founded by Emperor Charles IV., a contemporary of Petrarch, and 
chartered in 1348. • Once begun, the work of establishing such institu- 
tions went on rapidly, until ere long every principality of note had its 
own university. Vienna was founded in 1365, Erfurt was given papal 
sanction in 1379, Heidelberg was established in 1386, and Cologne 
followed in 1388. The document given below is the charter of privileges 
issued for Heidelberg in October, 1386, by the founder, Rupert I., Count 
Palatine of the Rhine. Marsilius Inghen became the first rector of the 
university. He and two other masters began lecturing October 19, 
1386 — one on logic, another on the epistle to Titus, the third on the 
philosophy of Aristotle. Within four years over a thousand students 
had been in attendance at the university. 

Source — ^Text in Edward Winkelmann, Urkundenbuch der JJniversitdt 
Heidelberg ["Cartulary of the University of Heidelberg"], Heidel- 
berg, 1886, Vol. 1., pp. 5-6. Translated in Ernest F. Henderson, 
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London, 1896), 
pp. 262-266. 

1. We, Rupert the elder, by the grace of Ciod count palatine 

of the Rhine, elector of the Holy Empire," and duke of Bavaria, 

1 In this capacity the provost of Paris came to be known as the "Conserva- 
tor of the Royal Privileges of the University." « 

2 For an explanation of the phrase " elector of the Holy Empire ' ' see p. 409. 



346 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

— lest we seem to abuse the privilege conceded to us by the 
apostolic see of founding a place of study at Heidelberg similar 
to that at Paris, and lest, for this reason, being subjected to the 
divine judgment, we should deserve to be deprived of the privi- 
lege granted — do decree, with provident counsel (which decree 
is to be observed unto all time), that the University of Heidel- 
berg shall be ruled, disposed, and regulated according to the 
modes and manners accustomed to be observed in the University 
The university of Paris. ^ Also that, as a handmaid of Paris — 
ized onThe " ^ worthy one let us hope — the latter's steps shall 
model of Paris be imitated in every way possible; so that, 
namely, there shall be four faculties in it: the first, of sacred 
theology and divinity; the second, of canon and civil law, which, 
by reason of their similarity, we think best to comprise under 
one faculty; the third, of medicine; the fourth, of liberal arts — 
of the three-fold philosophy, namely, primal, natural, and moral, 
three mutually subservient daughters.^ We "wish this institu- 
tion to be divided and marked out into four nations, as it is at 
Paris; ^ and that all these faculties shall make one university, 
and that to it the individual students, in whatever of the said 
faculties they are, shall unitedly belong like lawful sons to one 
mother. 

Likewise [we desire] that this university shall be governed by 
one rector,"* and that the various masters and teachers, before 
they are admitted to the common pursuits of our institution, 

1 Rupert had sent sums of money to Rome to induce Pope Urban VI. to 
approve the foundation of the university. The papal bull of 1385, which was 
the reward of his effort, specifically enjoined that the university be modeled 
closely after that -"f Paris. 

2 The mediaeval "three philosophies" were introduced by the rediscovery 
of some of Aristotle's writings in the twelfth century. Primal philosophy 
was what we now know as metaphysics; natural philosophy meant the 
sciences of physics, botany, etc.; and moral philosophy denoted ethics and 
polities. 

3 At Paris the students were divided into four groups, named from the 
nationality which predominated in each of them at the time of its forma- 
tion — the French, the Normans, the Picards, and the English. 

* The rector at Paris was head of the faculty of arts. 



FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG 347 

shall swear to observe the statutes, laws, privileges, liberties, and 
franchises of the same, and not reveal its secrets, to whatever 
grade they may rise. Also that they will uphold the honor of 
the rector and the rectorship of our university, and will obey 
The obligations the rector in all things lawful and honest, what- 
of the masters gyer be the grade to which they may afterwards 
happen to be promoted. Moreover, that the various masters 
and bachelors shall read their lectures and exercise their scholas- 
tic functions and go about in caps and gowns of a uniform and 
similar nature, according as has been observed at Paris up to 
this time in the different faculties. 

And we will that if any faculty, nation, or person shall op- 
pose the aforesaid regulations, or stubbornly refuse to obey them, 
or any one of them — which God forbid — from that time for- 
ward that same faculty, nation, or person, if it do not desist upon 
being warned, shall be deprived of all connection with our afore- 
said institution, and shall not have the benefit of our defense or 
Internal gov- protection. Moreover, we will and ordain that 

ernment of the as the university as a whole may do for those 

university fur- i , • 

ther provided assembled here and subject to it, so each faculty, 

nation, or province of it may enact lawful stat- 
utes, such as are suitable to its needs, provided that through them, 
or any one of them, no prejudice is done to the above regulations 
and to our institution, and that no kind of impediment arise 
from them. And we will that when the separate bodies shall 
have passed the statutes for their own observance, they may 
make them perpetually binding on those subject to them and 
on their successors. And as in the University of Paris the 
various servants of the institution have the benefit of the various 
privileges which its masters and scholars enjoy, so in starting 
our institution in Heidelberg, we grant, with even greater 
liberality, through these presents, that all the servants, i.e., its 
pedells,^ librarians, lower officials, preparers of parchment, 

1 Equivalent to bedel. All mediaeval universities had their bedels, who 



348 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

scribes, illuminators and others who serve it, may each and all, 
without fraud, enjoy in it the same privileges, franchises, im- 
munities and liberties with which its masters or scholars are 
now or shall hereafter be endowed. 

2. Lest in the new community of the city of Heidelberg, their 
misdeeds being unpunished, there be an incentive to the scholars 
of doing wrong, we ordain, with provident counsel, by these pres- 
ents, that the bishop of Worms, as judge ordinary of the clerks 
of our institution, shall have and possess, now and hereafter 
while our institution shall last, prisons, and an office in our 
town of Heidelberg for the detention of criminal clerks. These 
The jurisdic- things we have seen fit to grant to him and his 
bishop of ^ successors, adding these conditions: that he shall 

Worms permit no clerk to be arrested unless for a mis- 

demeanor; that he shall restore any one detained for such fault, or 
for any light offense, to his master, or to the rector if the latter asks 
for him, a promise having been given that the culprit will appear 
in court and that the rector or master will answer for him if the 
injured parties should go to law about ;;he matter. Furthermore, 
that, on being requested, he will restore a clerk arrested for a 
crime on slight evidence, upon receiving a sufficient pledge — ■ 
sponsors if the prisoner can obtain them, otherwise an oath if 
he cannot obtain sponsors — to the effect that he will answer in 
court the charges against him; and in all these things there shall 
be no pecuniary exactions, except that the clerk shall give satis- 
Conditions of faction, reasonably and recording to the rule of 
imprisonment ^]^g aforementioned town, for the expenses which 
he incurred while in prison. And we desire that he will detain 
honestly and without serious injury a criminal clerk thus ar- 
rested for a crime where the suspicion is grave and strong, until 
the truth can be found out concerning the deed of which he is 

bore the mace of authority before the rectors on pubHc occasions, made 
announcements of lectures, book sales, etc., and exercised many of the 
functions of the modern bedel of European universities. 



FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG 349 

suspected. And he shall not for any cause, moreover, take away 
any clerk from our aforesaid town, or permit him to be taken 
away, unless the proper observances have been followed, and 
he has been condemned by judicial sentence to perpetual im- 
prisonment for a crime. 

We command our advocate and bailiff and their servants in 
our aforesaid town, under pain of losing their offices and our 
favor, not to lay a detaining hand on any master or scholar of 
our said institution, nor to arrest him or allow him to be 
Limitations arrested, unless the deed be such that that 
upon power to master or scholar ought rightly to be detained. 
He shall be restored to his rector or master, if he 
is held for a slight cause, provided he will swear and promise to 
appear in court concerning the matter; and we decree that a 
slight fault is one for which a layman, if he had committed it, 
ought to have been condemned to a light pecuniary fine. Like- 
wise, if the master or scholar detained be found gravely or 
strongly suspected of the crime, we command that he be handed 
over by our officials to the bishop or to his representative in our 
said town, to be kept in custody. 

3. By the tenor of these presents we grant to each and all 
the masters and scholars that, when they come to the said in- 
stitution, while they remain there, and also when they return 
from it to their homes, they may freely carry with them, both 
coming and going, throughout all the lands subject to us, all 
things which they need while pursuing their studies, and all the 
Students ex- goods necessary for their support, without any 
various im°"^ duty, levy, imposts, tolls, excises, or other ex- 
posts actions whatever. And we wish them and each 

one of them, to be free from the aforesaid imposts when purchas- 
ing corn, wines, meat, fish, clothes and all things necessary for 
their living and for their rank. And we decree that the scholars 
from their stock in hand of provisions, if there remain over one 
or two wagonloads of wine without their having practised de- 



350 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

ception, may, after the feast of Easter of that year, sell it at 
wholesale without paying impost. We grant to them, moreover, 
that each day the scholars, of themselves or through their serv- 
ants, may be allowed to buy in the town of Heidelberg, at the 
accustomed hour, freely and without impediment or hurtful 
delay, any eatables or other necessaries of life. 

4. Lest the masters and scholars of our institution of Heidel- 
berg may be oppressed by the citizens, moved by avarice, 
through extortionate prices of lodgings, we have seen fit to 
decree that henceforth each year, after Christmas, one expert 
from the university on the part of the scholars, and one prudent, 

„ ^ » pious, and circumspect citizen on the part of the 

How rates for ^ ' ^ ^ _ 

lodgings should citizens, shall be authorized to determine the 
bo fixfid 

price of the students' lodgings. Moreover, we will 

and decree that the various masters and scholars shall, through 

our bailiff, our judge and the officials subject to us, be defended 

and maintained in the quiet possession of the lodgings given to 

them free or of those for which they pay rent. Moreover, by the 

tenor of these presents, we grant to the rector and the university, 

or to those designated by them, entire jurisdiction concerning 

the payment of rents for the lodgings occupied by the students, 

concerning the making and buying of books, and the borrowing 

of money for other purposes by the scholars of our institution; 

also concerning the payment of assessments, together with 

everything that arises from, depends upon, and is connected with 

these. 

In addition, we command our officials that, when the rector 

requires our and their aid and assistance for carrying out his 

sentences against scholars who try to rebel, they shall assist our 

clients and servants in this matter; first, however, obtaining 

lawful permission to proceed against clerks from the lord bishop 

of Worms, or from one deputed by him for this purpose. 



MEDIEVAL students' SONGS 351 

62. Mediaeval Students' Songs 

"When we try to picture to ourselves," says Mr. Symonds in one of 
his felicitous passages, "the intellectual and moral state of Europe in 
the Middle Ages, some fixed and almost stereotyped ideas immediately 
suggest themselves. We think of the nations immersed in a gross mental 
lethargy ; passively witnessing the gradual extinction of arts and sciences 
which Greece and Rome had splendidly inaugurated; allowing libraries 
and monuments of antique civilization to crumble into dust; while they 
trembled under a dull and brooding terror of coming judgment, shrank 
from natural enjoyment as from deadly sin, or yielded themselves with 
brutal eagerness to the satisfaction of vulgar appetites. Preoccupation 
with the other world in this long period weakens man's hold upon the 
things that make his life desirable. . . . Prolonged habits of extra- 
mundane contemplation, combined with the decay of real knowledge, 
volatilize the thoughts and aspirations of the best and wisest into dreamy 
unrealities, giving a false air of mysticism to love, shrouding art in alle- 
gory, reducing the interpretation of texts to an exercise of idle ingenuity, 
and the study of nature to an insane system of grotesque and pious 
quibbling. The conception of man's fall and of the incurable badness of 
this world bears poisonous fruit of cynicism and asceticism, that two- 
fold bitter almond hidden in the harsh monastic shell. Nature is re- 
garded with suspicion and aversion; the flesh, with shame and loathing, 
broken by spasmodic outbursts of lawless self-indulgence."* 

All of these ideas are properly to be associated with the Middle Ages, 
but it must be borne in mind that they represent only one side of the 
picture. They are drawn very largely from the study of monastic 
literature and produce a somewhat distorted impression. Though many 
conditions prevailing in mediaeval times operated strongly to paralyze 
the intellects and consciences of men, the fundamental manifestations 
and expressions of human instinct and vitality were far from crushed 
out. The life of many people was full and varied and positive — not 
so different, after all, from that of men and women to-day. That this 
was true is demonstrated by a wealth of literature reflecting the jovial 
and exuberant aspects of mediaeval life, which has come down to us 

1 John Addington Symonds, Wine, Women and Song: Mediceval Latin 
Students' Songs (London, 1884), pp. 1-3. 



352 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

chiefly in two great groups — the poetry of the troubadours and the songs 
of the wandering students. "That so bold, so fresh, so natural, so pagan 
a view of life," continues Mr. Symonds in the passage quoted, "as the 
Latin songs of the Wandering Students exhibit, should have found clear 
and artistic utterance in the epoch of the Crusades, is indeed enough to 
bid us pause and reconsider the justice of our stereotyped ideas about 
that period. This literature makes it manifest that the ineradicable 
appetites and natural instincts of men and women were no less vigorous 
in fact, though less articulate and self-assertive, than they had been in 
the age of Greece and Rome, and than they afterwards displayed them- 
selves in what is known as the Renaissance. The songs of the Wandering 
Students were composed for the most part in the twelfth century. 
Uttering the unrestrained emotions of men attached by a slender tie 
to the dominant clerical class and diffused over all countries, they 
bring us face to face with a body of opinion which finds in studied 
chronicle or labored dissertation of the period no echo. On the one side, 
they express that delight in life and physical enjoyment which was a 
main characteristic of the Renaissance; on the other, they proclaim that 
revolt against the corruption of Papal Rome which was the motive force 
of the Reformation. Who were these Wandering Students? As their 
name implies, they were men, and for the most part young men, travel- 
ing from university to university in search of knowledge. Far from 
their homes, without responsibilities, light of purse and light of heart, 
careless and pleasure-seeking, they ran a free, disreputable course, 
frequenting taverns at least as much as lecture-rooms, more capable of 
pronouncing judgment upon wine or woman than upon a problem of 
divinity or logic. These pilgrims to the shrines of knowledge fornled a 
class apart. According to tendencies prevalent in the Middle Ages, 
they became a sort of guild, and with pride proclaimed themselves an 
Order." ^ 

Our knowledge of the mediaeval students' songs is derived from two 
principal sources: (1) a richly illuminated thirteenth-century manuscript 
now preserved at Munich and edited in 1847 under the title Carmina 
Burana; and (2) another thirteenth-century manuscript published (with 
other materials) in 1841 under the title Latin Poems commonly attributed 
to Walter Mapes. Many songs occur in both collections. The half- 
1 Symonds, Wine, Women, and Song, pp. 5-20 passim. 



MEDIEVAL students' SONGS 353 

dozen given in translation below very well illustrate the subjects, tone, 
and style of these interesting bits of literature. 

Source — Texts in Edelestand du Meril, Poesies Populaires Latines du Moyen 
Age ["Popular Latin Poetry of the Middle Ages"], Paris, 1847, 
passim. Translated in John Addington Symonds, Wine, Women, 
and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students' Songs (London, 1884), pp. 12- 
136, passim. 

The first is a tenth century piece, marked by an element of tenderness 
in sentiment which is essentially modern. It is the invitation of a young 
man to his mistress, bidding her to a little supper at his home. 

"Come therefore now, my gentle fere, 
Whom as my heart I hold full dear; 
Enter my little room, which is 
Adorned with quaintest rarities: 
There are the seats with cushions spread, 
The roof with curtains overhead: 
The house with flowers of sweetest scent 
And scattered herbs is redolent: 
A table there is deftly dight 
With meats and drinks' of rare delight; 
There too the wine flows, sparkling, free; 
And all, my love, to pleasure thee. 
There sound enchanting symphonies; 
The clear high notes of flutes arise; 
A singing girl and artful boy 
Are chanting for thee strains of joy; 
He touches with his quill the wire, 
She tunes her note unto the lyre : 
The servants carry to and fro 
Dishes and cups of ruddy glow; 
But these delights, I will confess. 
Than pleasant converse charm me less; 
Nor is the feast so sweet to me 
As dear familiarity. 
Med. Hist.— 23 



354 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

Then come now, sister of my heart, 

That dearer than all others art, 

Unto mine eyes thou shining sun, 

Soul of my soul, thou only one! 

I dwelt alone in the wild woods, 

And loved all secret solitudes; 

Oft would I fly from tumults far. 

And shunned where crowds of people are. 

dearest, do not longer stay! 
Seek we to live and love to-day! 

1 cannot live without thee, sweet! 
Time bids us now our love complete." 



The next is a begging petition, addressed by a student on the road 
to some resident of the place where he was temporarily staying. The 
supplication for alms, in the name of learning, is cast in the form of 
a sing-song doggerel. 

I, a wandering scholar lad, 

Born for toil and sadness, 
Oftentimes am driven by 

Poverty to madness. 

Literature and knowledge I 

Fain would still be earning, 
Were it not that want of pelf 

Makes me cease from learning. 

These torn clothes that cover me 

Are too thin and rotten; 
Oft I have to suffer cold. 

By the warmth forgotten. 

Scarce I can attend at church, 

Sing God's praises duly; 
Mass and vespers both I miss, 

Though I love them truly. 



MEDIEVAL students' SONGS 355 



Oh, thou pride of N- 



By thy worth I pray thee 
Give the suppliant help in need, 
Heaven will sure repay thee. 

Take a mind unto thee now 
Like unto St. Martin; ^ 

Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness, 
Wish him well at parting. 

So may God translate your soul 

Into peace eternal, 
And the bliss of saints be yours 

In His realm supernal. 



The following jovial Song of the Open Road throbs with exhilaration 
and even impudence. Two vagabond students are drinking together 
before they part. One of them undertakes to expound the laws of the 
brotherhood which bind them together. The refrain is intended ap- 
parently to imitate a bugle call. 

We in our wandering. 
Blithesome and squandering, 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

Eat to satiety. 
Drink to propriety; 

Tara, tantara, teino! 

Laugh till our sides we split, 
Rags on our hides we fit: 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

1 This is the only indication of the name of the place where the suppliant 
student was supposed to be making his petition. 

2 St. Martin was the founder of the monastery at Tours [see p. 48]. 



356 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

Jesting eternally, 
Quaffing infernally. 

Tara, tantara, teino! . 

Craft's in the bone of us, 
Fear 'tis unknown of us; 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

When we're in neediness, 
Thieve we with greediness: 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

Brother catholical, 
Man apostolical, 

Tara, tantara, teino! 

Say what you will have done, 
What you ask 'twill be done! 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

Folk, fear the toss of the 
Horns of philosophy! 

Tara, tantara, teino! 

Here comes a quadruple 
Spoiler and prodigal! ^ 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

License and vanity 
Pamper insanity: ^ 

Tara, tantara, teino! 



1 " Honest folk are jeeringly bidden to beware of the quadrivium [see p. 
339], which is apt to form a fourfold rogue instead of a scholar in four 
branches of knowledge." — Symonds, Wine, Women, and Song, p. 57. 



MEDIEVAL students' SONGS 357 

As the Pope bade us do, 

Brother to brother's true: 

Tara, tantara, teino! 

Brother, best friend, adieu! 
Now, I must part from you! 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

When will our meeting be? 
Glad shall our greeting be! 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

Vows valedictory 
Now have the victory: 
Tara, tantara, teino! 

Clasped on each other's breast, 
Brother to brother pressed, 
Tara, tantara, teino! 



Here is a song entitled The Vow to Cupid. 

Winter, now thy spite is spent. 
Frost and ice and branches bent ! 
Fogs and furious storms are o'er, 
Sloth and torpor, sorrow frore. 
Pallid wrath, lean discontent. 

Comes the graceful band of May ! 
Cloudless shines the limpid day. 
Shine by night the Pleiades; 
While a grateful summer breeze 
Makes the season soft and gay. 



358 UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE 

Golden Love! shine forth to view! 
Souls of stubborn men subdue! 
See me bend! what is thy mind? 
Make the girl thou givest kind, 
And a leaping ram's thy duel ^ 

O the jocund face of earth, 
Breathing with young grassy birth! 
Every tree with foliage clad, 
Singing birds in greenwood glad, 
Flowering fields for lovers' mirth! 



Here is another song of exceedingly delicate sentiment. It is entitled 
The Love-Letter in Spring. 

Now the sun is streaming, 

Clear and pure his ray; 
April's glad face beaming 

On our earth to-day. 
Unto love returneth 

Every gentle mind; 
And the boy-god burneth 

Jocund hearts to bind. 

. All this budding beauty, 

Festival array, 
Lays on us the duty 

To be blithe and gay. 
Trodden ways are known, love I 

And in this thy youth. 
To retain thy own love 

Were but faith and truth. 

1 That is, as a sacrifice. 



MEDIEVAL students' SONGS 359 

In faith love me solely, 

Mark the faith of me, 
From thy whole heart wholly, 

From the soul of thee. 
At this time of bliss, dear, 

I am far away; 
Those who love like this, dear, 

Suffer every day! 



Next to love and the springtime, the average student set his affections 
principally on the tavern and the wine-bowl. From his proneness to 
frequent the tavern's jovial company of topers and gamesters naturally 
sprang a liberal supply of drinking songs. Here is a fragment from one 
of them. 

Some are gaming, some are drinking. 

Some are living without thinking; 

And of those who make the racket, 

Some are stripped of coat and jacket; 

Some get clothes of finer feather. 

Some are cleaned out altogether; 

No one there dreads death's invasion, 

But all drink in emulation. 



Finally may be given, in the original Latin, a stanza of a drinking 
song which fell to such depths of irreverence as to comprise a parody of 
Thomas Aquinas's hymn on the Lord's Supper. 

Bibit hera, bibit herus, 
Bibit miles, bibit clerus, 
Bibit ille, bibit ilia, 
Bibit servus cum ancilla, 
Bibit velox, bibit piger, 
Bibit albus, bibit niger, 
Bibit constans, bibit vagus, 
Bibit rudis, bibit magus. 



CHAPTER XXII, 

THE FRIARS 

From the twelfth century onwards one of the most conspicuous 
features of the internal development of the mediaeval Church was the 
struggle to combat worldliness among ecclesiastics and to preserve the 
purity of doctrine and uprightness of living which had characterized 
the primitive Christian clergy. As the Middle Ages advanced to their 
close, unimpeachable evidence accumulates that the Church was in- 
creasingly menaced by grave abuses. This evidence appears not only 
in contemporary records and chronicles but even more strikingly in the 
great protesting movements which spring up in rapid succession — par- 
ticularly the rise of heretical sects, such as the Waldenses and the Albi- 
genses, and the inauguration of systematic efforts to regenerate the church 
body without disrupting its unity. These latter efforts at first took the 
form of repeated revivals of monastic enthusiasm and self-denial, 
marked by the founding of a series of new orders on the basis of the 
Benedictine Rule — the Cluniacs, the Carthusians, the Cistercians, and 
others of their kind [see p. 245]. This resource proving ineffective, the 
movement eventually came to comprise the establishment of wholly 
new and independent organizations — the mendicant orders — on prin- 
ciples better adapted than were those of monasticism to the successful 
propagation of simplicity and purity of Christian living. The chief of 
these new orders were the Franciscans, known also as Gray Friars and 
as Minorites, and the Dominicans, sometimes called Black Friars or 
Preaching Friars. Both were founded in the first quarter of the thir- 
teenth century, the one by St. Francis of Assisi ; the other by the Span- 
'^h nobleman, St. Dominic. 

The friars, of whatsoever type, are clearly to be distinguished from the 
monks. In the first place, their aims were different. The monks, in so 
far as they were true to their principles, lived in more or less seclusion 

360 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 361 

from the rest of the world and gave themselves up largely to prayer and 
meditation ; the fundamental purpose of the friars, on the other hand, 
was to mingle with their fellow-men and to spend their lives in active 
religious work among them. Whereas the old monasticism had been 
essentially selfish, the new movement was above all of a missionary and 
philanthropic character. In the second place, the friars were even more 
strongly committed to a life of poverty than were the monks, for they 
renounced not only individual property, as did the monks, but also col- 
lective property, as the monks did not. They were expected to get their 
living either by their own labor or by begging. They did not dwell in 
fixed abodes, but wandered hither and thither as inclination and duty 
led. Their particular sphere of activity was the populous towns; unlike 
the monks, they had no liking for rural solitudes. As one writer has 
put it, "their houses were built in or near the great towns; and to the 
majority of the brethren the houses of the orders were mere temporary 
resting-places from which they issued to make their journeys through 
town and country, preaching in the parish churches, or from the steps of 
the market-crosses, and carrying their ministrations to every castle 
and every cottage." 

Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans were exempt from control 
by the bishops in the various dioceses and were ardent supporters of 
the papacy, which showered privileges upon them and secured in 
them two of its strongest allies. The organization of each order 
was elaborate and centralized. At the head was a master, or 
general, who resided at Rome and was assisted by a "chapter." All 
Christendom was divided into provinces, each of which was directed 
by a prior and provincial chapter. And over each individual "house" 
was placed a prior, or warden, appointed by the provincial chapter. 
In their earlier history the zeal and achievements of the friars were 
remarkable. Nearly all of the greatest men of the thirteenth and early 
fourteenth centuries — as Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Dun Scotus, 
and Albertus Magnus — were members of one of the mendicant orders. 
Unfortunately, with the friars as with the monks, prosperity brought 
decadence ; and by the middle of the fourteenth century their ardor had 
cooled and their boasted self-denial had pretty largely given place to self- 
iiululgence. 



362 THE FRIARS 

63. The Life of St. Francis 

Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, was born, 
■probably in 1182, at Assisi, a small town in central Italy. His boyhood 
was unpromising, but when he was about twenty years of age a great 
change came over him, the final result of which was the making of one 
of the most splendid and altogether lovable characters of the entire 
Middle Ages. From a wild, reckless, although cultured, youth he de- 
veloped into a sympathetic, self-denying, sweet-spirited saint. Finding 
himself, after his conversion, possessed of a natural loathing for the 
destitute and diseased, especially lepers, he disciplined himself until he 
could actually take a certain sort of pleasure in associating with these 
outcasts of society. When his father, a wealthy and aristocratic cloth- 
merchant, protested against this sort of conduct, the young man 
promptly cast aside his gentlemanly raiment, clad himself in the worn- 
out garments of a gardener, and adopted the life of the wandering 
hermit. In 1209, in obedience to what he conceived to be a direct com- 
mission from heaven, he began definitely to imitate the early apostles 
in his manner of living and to preach the gospel of the older and purer 
Christianity. By 1210 he had a small body of followers, and in that year 
he sought and obtained Pope Innocent III.'s sanction of his work, 
though the papal approval was expressed only orally and more than a 
decade was to elapse before the movement received formal recognition. 
About 1217 Francis and his companions took up missionary work on a 
large scale. Members of the brotherhood were dispatched to England, 
Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, and several other countries, with 
instructions to spread the principles which by this time were coming 
to be recognized as peculiarly Franciscan. The success of these efforts 
was considerable, though in some places the brethren were ill treated and 
an appeal had to be made to the Pope for protection. 

The several selections given below have been chosen to illustrate the 
principal features of the life and character of St. Francis. We are 
fortunate in possessing a considerable amount of literature, contempo- 
rary or nearly so, relating to the personal career of this noteworthy 
man. In the first place, we have some writings of St. Francis himself — 
the Rule (p. 373), the Will (p. 376), some poems, some reported sermons, 
and fragments of a few letters. Then we have several biographies, of 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 863 

which the most valuable, because not only the earliest but also the least 
conventional, are the Mirror of Perfection and the Legend of the Three 
Companions. These were written by men who knew St. Francis inti- 
mately and who could avow "we who were with him have heard him 
say " or " we who were with him have seen,'' such and such things. The 
" three companions " were Brothers Leo, Rufinus, and Angelo — all men of 
noble birth, the last-named being the first soldier to be identified with 
the order. The Mirror of Perfection was written in 1227 by Brother Leo, 
who of all men probably knew St. Francis best. It is a vivid and fas- 
cinating portrait drawn from life. The Legend of the Three Com- 
panions was written in 1246. The later biographies, such as the 
official Life by St. Bonaventura (1261) and the Little Flowers of St. 
Francis (written probably in the fourteenth century), though until re- 
cently the best known of the group, are relatively inferior in value. 
In them the real St. Francis is conventionalized and much obscured. 

The first passage here reproduced (a) comes from the Legend of the 
Three Companions; the others (b) are taken from the Mirror of 
Perfection. 

Sources — (a) Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quce dicitur Legenda trium 
sociorum. Adapted from translation by E. G. Salter, under 
title of "The Legend of the Three Companions," in the Temple 
Classics (London, 1902), pp. 8-24, passim. 

(b) Specidum Perfeclionis. Translated by Constance, Countess 
de la Warr, under title of "The Mirror of Perfection" (London, 
1902), passim,. 

(a) 

Francis, born in the city of Assisi, which lies in the confines 
of the Vale of Spoleto, was at first named John by his mother. 
Then, when his father, in whose absence he had been born, re- 
turned from France, he was afterward named Francis.^ After 
he was grown up, and had become of a subtle wit, he practiced 
the art of his father, that is, trade. But [he did so] in a very 
different manner, for he was a merrier man than was his father, 

1 The father's name was Pietro Bernardone. As a cloth-merchant he was 
probably accustomed to make frequent journeys to northern France, par- 
ticularly Champagne, which was the principal seat of commercial exchange 
between northern and southern Europe. 



364 THE FRIARS 

and more generous, given to jests and songs, going about the 
city of Assisi day and night in company with his kind, most 
free-handed in spending; insomuch that he consumed all his 
income and his profits in banquets and other matters. On this 
„. , „ J account he was often rebuked by his parents, 

vanities and who told him he ran into so great expense on 
himself and on others that he seemed to be no 
son of theirs, but rather of some mighty prince. Nevertheless, 
because his parents were rich and loved him most tenderly, they 
bore with him in such matters, not being disposed to chastise 
him. Indeed, his mother, when gossip arose among the neigh- 
bors concerning his prodigal ways, made answer: "What think 
ye of my son? He shall yet be the son of God by gTace." But 
he himself was free-handed, or rather prodigal, not only in these 
things, but even in his clothes he was beyond measure sumptuous, 
using stuffs more costly than it befitted him to wear. So way- 
ward was his fancy that at times on the same coat he would 
cause a costly cloth to be matched with one of the meanest sort. 
Yet he was naturally courteous, in manner and word, after 
the purpose of his heart, never speaking a harmful or shameful 
word to any one. Nay, indeed, although he was so gay and 
wanton a youth, yet of set purpose would he make no reply to 
those who said shameful things to him. And hence was his 
fame so spread abroad throughout the whole neighborhood that 
His redeeming it was said by many who knew him that he 
qualities would do something great. By these steps of 

godliness he progressed to such grace that he would say in com- 
muning with himself: "Seeing that thou art bountiful and 
courteous toward men, from whom thou receivest naught save 
a passing and empty favor, it is just that thou shouldst be 
courteous and bountiful toward God, who is Himself most 
bountiful in rewarding His poor." Wherefore thenceforward 
did he look with goodwill upon the poor, bestowing alms upon 
them abundantly. And although he was a merchant, yet was 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 365 

he a most lavish dispenser of this world's riches. One day, when 

he was standing in the warehouse in which he sold goods, and 

was intent on business, a certain poor man came to him asking 

alms for the love of God. Nevertheless, he was held back by 

the covetousness of wealth and the cares of merchandise, and 

A lesson in denied him the alms. But forthwith, being looked 

charity upon by the divine grace, he rebuked himself of 

great churlishness, saying, "Had this poor man asked thee 

aught in the name of a great count or baron, assuredly thou 

wouldst have given him what he had asked. How much more 

then oughtest thou to have done it for the King of Kings and 

Lord of all?" By reason whereof he thenceforth determined 

in his heart never again to deny anything asked in the name of 

so great a Lord, ... 

Now, not many days after he returned to Assisi,^ he was 

chosen one evening by his comrades as their master of the revels, 

to spend the money collected from the company after his own 

fancy. So he caused a sumptuous banquet to be made ready, 

as he had often done before. And when they came forth from 

the house, and his comrades together went before him, going 

through the city singing while he carried a wand in his hand 

as their master, he was walking behind them, not singing, but 

meditating very earnestly. And lo! suddenly he was visited 

by the Lord, and his heart was filled with such sweetness that 

he could neither speak nor move; nor was he able to feel and 

A -^i^^ i^ hear anything except that sweetness only, which 
A vision m J o jr- J > 

the midst of SO separated him from his physical senses that 

— as he himself afterward said — had he then been 

pricked with knives all over at once, he could not have moved 

1 Aspiring to become a knight and to win distinction on the field of battle, 
Francis had gone to Spoleto with the intention of joining an expedition about 
to set out for Apuha. While there he was stricken with fever and compelled 
to abandon his purpose. Returning to Assisi, he redoubled his works of 
charity and sought to keep aloof from the people of the town. His old 
companions, however, flocked around him, expecting still to profit by his 
prodigality, and for a time, being himself uncertain as to the course he would 
take, he acceded to their desires. 



366 THE FRIARS 

from the spot. But when his comrades looked back and saw 
him thus far off from them, they returned to him in fear, staring 
at him as one changed into another man. And they asked him, 
"What were you thinking about, that you did not come along 
with us? Perchance you were thinking of taking a wife." To 
them he replied with a loud voice: "Truly have you spoken, for 
I thought of taking to myself a bride nobler and richer and fairer 
than ever you have seen." And they mocked at him. But this 
he said not of his own accord, but inspired of God; for the bride 
herself was true Religion, whom he took, unto him, nobler, 
richer, and fairer than others in her poverty. 

And so from that hour he began to grow worthless in his own 
eyes, and to despise those things he had formerly loved, although 
not wholly so at once, for he was not yet entirely freed from the 
vanity of the world. Nevertheless, withdrawing himself little by 
little from the tumult of the world, he made it his study to 
treasure up Jesus Christ in his inner man, and, hiding from the 
eyes of mockers the pearl that he would fain buy at. the price of 
selling his all, he went oftentimes, and as it were in secret, daily 
to prayer, being urged thereto by the foretaste of that sweetness 
that had visited him more and more often, and compelled him 
to come from the streets and other public places to prayer. 
Although he had long done good unto the poor, yet from this 
time forth he determined still more firmly in his heart never 
His increasing again to deny alms to any poor man who should 
zeal in charity ^g^ it for the love of God, but to give alms 
more willingly and bountifully than had been his practice. 
Whenever, therefore, any poor man asked of him an alms 
out of doors, he would supply him with money if he could; 
if he had no ready money, he would give him his cap or girdle 
rather than send the poor man away empty. And if it happened 
that he had nothing of this kind, he would go to some hidden 
place, and strip off his ehirt, and send the poor man thither that 
he might take it, for the sake of God. He also would buy vessels 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 367 

for the adornment of churches, and would send them in all 
secrecy to poor priests. ... 

So changed, then, was he by divine grace (although still in 
the secular garb) that he desired to be in some city where he 
might, as one unknown, strip off his own clothes and exchange 
them for those of some beggar, so that he might wear his instead 
and make trial of himself by asking alms for the love of God. 
Now it happened that at that time he had gone to Rome on a 
pilgrimage. And entering the church of St. Peter, he reflected 
on the offerings of certain people, seeing that they were small, 
and spoke within himself: ''Since the Prince of the Apostles 
should of right be magnificently honored, why do these folk 
make such sorry offerings in the church wherein his body rests?" 
And so in great fervency he put his hand into his purse and drew 
it forth full of money, and flung it through the grating of the 
altar with such a crash that all who were standing by marveled 
greatly at so splendid an offering. Then, going forth in front 
of the doors of the church, where many beggars were gathered 
to ask alms, he secretly borrowed the rags of one among the 
He begs alms neediest and donned them, laying aside his own 
at Rome clothing. Then, standing on the church steps 

with the other beggars, he asked an alms in French, for he loved 
to speak the French tongue, although he did not speak it cor- 
rectly. Thereafter, putting off the rags, and taking again his 
own clothes, he returned to Assisi, and began to pray the Lord 
to direct his way. For he revealed unto none his secret, nor 
took counsel of any in this matter, save only of God (who had 
begun to direct his way) and at times of the bishop of Assisi. 
For at that time no true Poverty was to be found anywhere, and 
she it was that he desired above all things of this world, being 
minded in her to live — yea, and to die. . . . 

Now when on a certain day he was praying fervently unto the 
Lord, answer was made unto him: "Francis, all those things that 
thou hast loved after the flesh, and hast desired to have, thou 



368 THE FRIARS 

must needs despise and hate, if thou wouldst do My will, and 
after thou shalt have begun to do this the things that aforetime 
seemed sweet unto thee and delightful shall be unbearable unto 
thee and bitter, and from those that aforetime thou didst loathe 
thou shalt drink great sweetness and delight unmeasured." 
Rejoicing at these words, and consoled in the Lord, when he 
Francis and had ridden nigh unto Assisi, he met one that was 
the leper g^ leper. And because he had been accustomed 

greatly to loathe lepers, he did violence to himself, and dis- 
mounted from his horse, gave him money, and kissed his hand. 
And receiving from him the kiss of peace, he remounted his 
horse and continued his journey. Thenceforth he began more 
and more to despise himself, until by the grace of God he had 
attained perfect mastery over himself. 

A few days later, he took much money and went to the quarter 
of the lepers, and, gathering all together, gave to each an alms, 
kissing his hand. As he departed, in very truth that which had 
aforetime been bitter to him, that is, the sight and touch of 
lepers, was changed into sweetness. For, as he confessed, the 
sight of lepers had been so grievous to him that he had been 
accustomed to avoid not only seeing them, but even going near 
their dwellings. And if at any time he happened to pass their 
abodes, or to see them, although he was moved by compassion 
to give them an alms through another person, yet always would 
he turn aside his face, stopping his nostrils with his hand. But, 
through the grace of God, he became so intimate a friend of the 
lepers that, even as he recorded in his Will,^ he lived with them 
and did humbly serve them. 

(b) 

A very spiritual friar, who was familiar with Blessed Francis, 
erected at the hermitage where he lived a little cell in a solitary 
spot, where Blessed Francis could retire and pray when he came 

1 See p. 376. 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 369 

thither. When he arrived at this place the friar took him to the 

cell, and Blessed Francis said, "This cell is too splendid" — it 

How St. Fran- was, indeed, built only of wood, and smoothed 

dwell'in an° with a hatchet — "if you wish me to remain here, 

adorned cell make it within and without of branches of trees 

and clay." For the poorer the house or cell, the more was he 

pleased to live therein. When the friar had done this, Blessed 

Francis remained there several days. One day he was out of the 

cell when a friar came to see him, who, coming thereafter to the 

place where Blessed Francis was, was asked, "Whence came 

you. Brother?" He answered, "I come from your cell." Then 

said Blessed Francis: "Since you have called it mine, let another 

dwell there and not I." And, in truth, we who were with him 

often heard him say: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the 

rt . „ air have their nests, but the Son of Man hath 

Or m a cell ' 

called his not where to lay His head." And again he would 

say: "When the Lord remained in the desert, and 
fasted forty days and forty nights. He did not make for Himself 
a cell or a house, but found shelter amongst the rocks of the 
mountain." For this reason, and to follow His example, he 
would not have it said that a cell or house was his, nor would he 
allow such to be constructed. . . . When he was nigh unto 
death he caused it to be written in his Testament ^ that all the 
cells and houses of the friars should be of wood and clay, the 
better to safeguard poverty and humility. 

At the beginning of the Order, when the friars were at Rivo- 
Torto,^ near Assisi, there was among them one friar who would 
A lazy not pray, work, nor ask for alms, but only eat. 

^"^^ Considering this, Blessed Francis knew by the Holy 

Spirit that he was a carnal man, and said to him, " Brother Fly, go 

1 Brief portions of this testament, or will, are given on p. 376. 

2 This was in the latter part of 1210 and the early part of 1211. Rivo- 
Torto was an abandoned cottage in the plain of Assisi, an hour's walk from 
the town and near the highway between Perugia and Rome. The building 

Med. Hist.— 24 



370 THE FRIARS 

your way, since you consume the labor of the brethren, and are 
slothful in the work of the Lord, like the idle and barren drone who 
earns nothing and does not work, but consumes the labor and earn- 
ings of the working bee." He, therefore, went his way, and as 
he was a carnally-minded man he neither sought for mercy nor 
obtained it. 

Having at a time suffered greatly from one of his serious 
attacks of illness, when he felt a little better he began to think 
that during his sickness he had exceeded his usual allowance of 
food, whereas he had really eaten very little. Though not quite 
recovered from the ague, he caused the people of Assisi to be 
called together in the public square to listen to a sermon. When 
he had finished preaching, he told the people to remain where 
they were until he came back to them, and entered the cathedral 
of St. Rufinus with many friars and Brother Peter of Catana, 
who had been a canon of that church, and was now the first 
Minister-General ^ appointed by Blessed Francis. To Brother 
P hi' h V P^ter Francis spoke, enjoining him under obedi- 
tion inflicted ence not to contradict what he was about to say. 
Brother Peter replied: "Brother, neither is it 
possible, as between you and me, nor do I wish to do anything 
save what is pleasing to you." Then, taking off his tunic, 
Blessed Francis bade him place a rope around his neck and drag 
him thus before the people to the place where he had preached. 
At the same time he ordered another friar to carry a bowlful 
of ashes to the place, and when he got there to throw the ashes 



had once served as a leper hospital. Francis and his companions selected 
it as a temporary place of abode, probably because of its proximity to the 
carceri, or natural grottoes, of Mount Subasio to which the friars resorted 
for solitude, and because it was at the same time sufficiently near the Um- 
brian towns to permit of frequent trips thither for preaching and charity. 

1 Practically, St. Francis's successor in the headship of the order. With 
the idea of realizing entire humility in his own life, St. Francis had resigned 
his position of authority into the hands of Brother Peter and had pledged 
the implicit obedience of himself and the others to the new prelate. 



THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS 371 

into his face. But this order was not obeyed by the friar out 
of the pity and compassion he felt for him. 

Brother Peter, taking the rope, did as he had been told; but 
he and all the other friars shed tears of compassion and bitter- 
ness. When he [Francis] stood thus bared before the people in 
the place where he had preached, he cried: ''You, and all those 
who by my example have been induced to abandon the world 
and enter Religion to lead the lives of friars, I confess before 
God and you that in my illness I have eaten meat and broths 
made of meat." And all the people could not refrain from weep- 
ing, especially as at that time it was very cold and he had scarcely 
recovered from the fever. Beating their breasts where they 
stood, they exclaimed, " If this saint, for just and manifest neces- 
sity, with shame of body thus accuses himself, whose life we know 
to be holy, and who has imposed on himself such great ab- 
stinence and austerity since his first conversion to Christ (whom 
v:e here, as it were, see in the flesh), what will become of us sin- 
ners who all our lifetime seek to follow our carnal appetites?" 

Blessed Francis, wholly wrapped up in the love of God, dis- 
cerned perfectly the goodness of God not only in his own soul, 
now adorned with the perfection of virtue, but in every creature. 
On account of which he had a singular and intimate love of 
St. Francis creatures, especially of those in which was figured 
and the larks anything pertaining to God or the Order. Where- 
fore above all other birds he loved a certain little bird which is 
called the lark, or by the people, the cowled lark. And he used to 
say of it: "Sister Lark hath a cowl like a Religious; and she is a 
humble bird, because she goes willingly by the road to find there 
any food. And if she comes upon it in foulness, she draws it out 
and eats it. But, flying, she praises God very sweetly, like a good 
Religious, despising earthly things, whose conversation is always 
in the heavens, and whose intent is always to the praise of God. 
Her clothes (that is, her feathers), are like to the earth and she 



372 THE FRIARS 

gives an example to Religious that they should not have delicate 
and colored garments, but common in price and color, as earth 
is commoner than the other elements." And because he per- 
ceived this in them, he looked on them most willingly. There- 
fore it pleased the Lord, that these most holy little birds should 
show some sign of affection towards him in the hour of his 
death. For late in the Sabbath day after vespers, before the 
night in which he passed away to the Lord, a great multitude- 
of that kind of birds called larks came on the roof of the house 
where he was lying, and, flying about, made a wheel like a circle 
around the roof, and, sweetly singing, seemed likewise to praise 
the Lord. 

We who were with Blessed Francis and write these things, 
testify that many times we heard him say: "If I could speak 
with the Emperor,^ I would supplicate and persuade him that, 
for the love of God and me, he would make a special law that no 
man should snare or kill our sisters, the larks, nor do them any 
harm. Also, that all chief magistrates of cities and lords of 
castles and villages should, every year, on the day of the Lord's 
His desire that Nativity, compel men to scatter wheat and other 
mils be'^fe (foil S^ain on the roads outside cities and castles, that 
Christmas day our Sister Larks and all other birds might have to 
eat on that most solemn day; and that, out of reverence for the 
Son of God, who on that night was laid by the most Blessed 
Virgin Mary in a manger between an ox and an ass, all who have 
oxen and asses should be obliged on that night to provide them 
with 'abundant and good fodder; and also that on that day the 
poor should be most bountifully fed by the rich." 

For Blessed Francis held in higher reverence than any other 
the Feast of the Lord's Nativity, saying, "After the Lord was 
born, our salvation became a necessity." Therefore he desired 
that on this day all Christians should rejoice in the Lord, and, 

1 That is, the sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire. 



. THE RULE OF ST. FRANCIS 373 

for the love of Him who gave Himself for us, should generously 
provide not only for the poor, but also for the beasts and birds. 

Next to fire he most loved water, which is the symbol of holy 
penance and tribulation, whereby the stains are washed from 
the soul, and by which the first cleansing of the soul takes place 
in holy baptism. Hence, when he washed his hands, he would 
select a place where he would not tread the water underfoot. 
His regard for When he walked over stones he would tread on 
aifdalf created ^^^^ '^^th fear and reverence, for the love of 
things Him who is called the Rock, and when reciting 

the words of the Psalm, Thou hast exalted me on a rock, would 
add with great reverence and devotion, "beneath the foot of 
the rock hast thou exalted me." 

In the same way he would tell the friars who cut and pre- 
pared the wood not to cut down the whole tree, but only such 
branches as would leave the tree standing, for love of Him who 
died for us on the wood of the Cross. So, also, he would tell the 
friar who was the gardener not to cultivate all the ground for 
vegetables and herbs for food, but to set aside some part to 
produce green plants which should in their time bear flowers 
for the friars, for love of Him who was called "The Flower of 
the Field," and "The Lily of the Valley." Indeed he would say 
the Brother Gardener should always make a beautiful little 
garden in some part of the land, and plant it with sweet-scented 
herbs bearing lovely flowers, which in the time of their blossom- 
ing invited men 'to praise Him who made all herbs and flowers. 
For every creature cries aloud: "God has made me for thee, O 
man!" 

64. The Rule of St. Francis 

There is every reason for believing that St. Francis set out upon his 
mission with no idea wha.tever of founding a new religious order. His 
fundamental purpose was to revive what he conceived to be the purer 
Christianity of the apostolic age, and so far as this involved the announce- 



374 THE FRIARS 

ment of any definite principles or rules he was quite content to draw 
them solely from the Scriptures. We have record, for example, of how 
when (in 1209) St. Francis had yet but two followers, he led them to the 
steps of the church of St. Nicholas at Assisi and there read to them 
three times the words of Jesus sending forth liis disciples/ adding, 
"This, brethren, is our life and our rule, and that of all who may join us. 
Go, then, and do as you have heard." As his field of labor expanded, 
however, and the number of the friars increased, St. Francis decided to 
write out a definite Rule for the brotherhood and go to Rome to procure 
its approval by the Pope. The Rule as thus formulated, in 1210, has not 
come down to us. We know only that it was extremely simple and that 
it was composed almost wholly of passages from the Bible (doubtless 
those read to the companions at Assisi), with a few precepts about the 
occupations and manner of living of the brethren. This first Rule indeed 
proved too simple and brief to satisfy the demands of the growing order. 
A general injunction, such as "be poor," was harder to apply and to 
live up to than a more specific set of instructions explaining just what 
was to be considered poverty and what was not. The brethren, more- 
over, were soon preaching and laboring in all the countries of western 
Europe and questions were continually coming up regarding their rela- 
tions with the temporal powers in those countries, with the local clergy, 
with the papal government, and also among themselves. 

Reluctantly, and with a heart-felt warning against the insidious 
influences of ambition and organization, the founder finally brought him- 
self to the task of drawing up a constitution for the order which had sur- 
prised him, and in a certain sense grieved him, by the very elaborateness 
of its development. During the winter of 1220-21 , when physical infirmi- 
ties were foreshadowing the end, Francis worked out the document gen- 
erally known as the Rule of 1221, which became the basis for the Rule of 
1223, quoted in part below. Before the Rule took its final form, the in- 

iThe passage (Luke ix. 1-6) is as follows: "Jesus, having called to Him 
the Twelve, gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure 
diseases. And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the 
sick. And He said unto them. Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, 
nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. And 
whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. And who- 
soever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city shake off the very 
dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed and 
went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere." 



THE RULE OF ST. FRANCIS 375 

fluence of the Church was brought to bear through the papacy, with the 
result that most of the freshness and vigor that St. Francis put into the 
earUer effort was crushed out in the interest of ecclesiastical regularity. 
Only a small portion of the document can be reproduced here, but 
enough, perhaps, to show something as to what the manner of life of the 
Franciscan friar was expected to be. The extract may profitably be 
compared with the Benedictine Rule governing the monks [see p. 83]. 

Source — Bullarium Romanum [" Collection of Papal Bulls "], editio Tauri- 
nensis, Vol. III., p. 394. Adapted from translation in Ernest F. 
Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London, 
1896), pp. 344-349 passim. 

1. This is the rule and way of living of the Minorite brothers, 
namely, to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
living in obedience, without personal possessions, and in chastity. 
Brother Francis promises obedience and reverence to our lord 
Pope Honorius,^ and to his successors who canonically enter 
upon their office, and to the Roman Church. And the other 
brothers shall be bound to obey Brother Francis and his suc- 
cessors. 

4. I firmly command all the brothers by no means to receive 
coin or money, of themselves or through an intervening person. 
Money in no But for the needs of the sick and for clothing the 
cefved°b^the other brothers, the ministers alone and the 
brothers guardians shall provide through spiritual friends, 
as it may seem to them that necessity demands, according to 
time, place and the coldness of the temperature. This one thing 
being always borne in mind, that, as has been said, they re- 
ceive neither coin nor money. 

5. Those brothers to whom God has given the ability to labor 
shall labor faithfully and devoutly, in such manner that idleness, 
the enemy of the soul, being averted, they may not extinguish 
The obliga- the spirit of hol}^ prayer and devotion, to which 
tion to labor other temporal things should be subservient. As 
a reward, moreover, for their labor, they may receive for them- 

iHonorius III., 1216-1227. 



376 THE FRIARS 

selves and their brothers the necessities of life, but not coin or 
money; and this humbly, as becomes the servants of God and 
the followers of most holy poverty. 

6. The brothers shall appropriate nothing to themselves, 
neither a house, nor a place, nor anything; but as pilgrims and 
strangers in this world, in poverty and humility serving God, 
they shall confidenuly'^o seeking for alms. Nor need they be 
ashamed, for the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world. 

65. The Will of St. Francis 

The will which St. Francis prepared just before his death (1226) 
contains an admirable statement of the principles for which he labored, 
as well as a notable warning to his successors not to allow the order to 
fall away from its original high ideals. Among the later Franciscans 
the Will acquired a moral authority superior even to that of the Rule. 

Source — ^Text in Amoni, Legenda Trium Sociorum ["Legend of the Three 
Companions"], Appendix, p. 110. Translation adapted from Paul 
Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assisi (New York, 1894), pp. 337- 
339. 

God gave it to me. Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in 
the following manner: when I was yet in my sins it seemed to me 
too painful to look upon the lepers, but the Lord Himself led 
me among them, and I had compassion upon them. When I 
left them, that which had seemed to me bitter had become sweet 
and easy. A little while after, I left the world, ^ and God gave 
me such faith that I would kneel down with simplicity in any 
of his churches, and I would say, "We adore thee. Lord Jesus 
Christ, here and in all thy churches which are in the world, and 
we bless thee that by Thy holy cross Thou hast ransomed the 
world." 

Afterward the Lord gave me, and still gives me, so great a 
faith in priests who live according to the form of the holy Roman 
Church, because of their sacerdotal character, that even if they 

1 That is, abandoned the worldly manner of living. 



THE WILL OF ST. FRANCIS 377 

persecuted me I would have recourse to them, and even though 
I had all the wisdom of Solomon, if I should find poor secular 
„ p . priests, I would not preach in their parishes 

hostile to the against their will.^ I desire to respect them like 
all the others, to love them and honor them as 
my lords. I will not consider their sins, for in them I see the 
Son of God, and they are my lords. I do this because here below 
I see nothing, I perceive nothing physically of the most high 
Son of God, except His most holy body and blood, which the 
priests receive and alone distribute to others.^ 

I desire above all things to honor and venerate all these most 
holy mysteries and to keep them precious. Wherever I find the 
sacred name of Jesus, or his words, in unsuitable places, I desire 
to take them away and put them in some decent place; and I 
pray that others may do the same. We ought to honor and 
revere all the theologians and those who preach the most holy 
word of God, as dispensing to us spirit and life. 

When the Lord gave me the care of some brothers, no one 
showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself re- 
vealed to me that I ought to live according to the model of the 
holy gospel. I caused a short and simple formula to be written 
and the lord Pope confirmed it for me.^ 

Those who volunteered to follow this kind of life distributed 
all they had to the poor. They contented themselves with 
Poverty and one tunic, patched within and without, with 
labor enjoined j-j^g qq^.^ g^j^^j breeches, and we desired to have 
nothing more. . . . We loved to live in poor and aban- 

1 Despite the wllingness of St. Francis here expressed to get on peaceably 
with the secular clergy, i.e., the bishops and priests, the history of the 
mendicant orders is fillecl with the records of strife between the seculars and 
friars. This was inevitable, since such friars as had taken priestly orders 
were accustomed to hear confessions, preside at masses, preach in parish 
churchyards, bury the dead, and collect alms — all the proper functions of 
the parish priests but permitted to the friars by special papal dispensations. 
The priests very naturally regarded the friars as usurpers. 

2 That is, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

3 The Rule of 1210, approved by Innocent III., is here meant [see p. 374]. 



378 THE FRIAES 

doned churches, and we were ignorant and were submissive to all. 
I worked with my hands and would still do so, and I firmly 
desire also that all the other brothers work, for this makes for 
goodness. Let those who know no trade learn one, not for the 
purpose of receiving wages for their toil, but for their good 
example and to escape idleness. And when we are not given the 
price of our work, let us resort to the table of the Lord, begging 
our bread from door to door. The Lord revealed to me the 
salutation which we ought to give: "God give you peace!" 

Let the brothers take great care not to accept churches, 
dwellings, or any buildings erected for them, except as all is 
in accordance with the holy poverty which we have vowed in 
the Rule; and let them not live in them except as strangers and 
pilgrims. I absolutely forbid all the brothers, in whatsoever 
place they may be found, to ask any bull from the court of 
No further Rome, whether directly or indirectly, in the in- 

to^be^s^uffht terest of church or convent, or under pretext of 
from the Pope preaching, or even for the protection of their 
bodies. If they are not received anywhere, let them go of them- 
selves elsewhere, thus doing penance with the benediction of 
God. . . . 

And let the brothers not say, "This is a new Rule"; for this is 
only a reminder, a warning, an exhortation. It is my last will 
and testament, that I, little Brother Francis, make for you, my 
blessed brothers, in order that we may observe in a more Catholic 
way the Rule which we promised the Lord to keep. 

Let the ministers-general, all the other ministers, and the 
custodians be held by obedience to add nothing to and take 
No additions nothing away from these words. Let them always 
the R^e or keep this writing near them beside the Rule; and 
the Will in all the assemblies which shall be held, when 

the Rule is read, let these words be read also. 

I absolutely forbid all the brothers, clerics and laymen, to 
inti'oduce comments in the Rule^ or in this Will, under pretext 



THE WILL OF ST. FRANCIS 379 

of explaining it. But since the Lord has given me to speak and 
to write the Rule and these words in a clear and simple manner, 
so do 3'ou understand them in the same way without commentary, 
and put them in practice until the end. 

And whoever shall have observed these things, may he be 
crowned in heaven with the blessings of the heavenly Father, 
and on earth with those of his well-beloved Son and of the Holy 
Spirit, the Consoler, with the assistance of all the heavenly 
virtues and all the saints. 

And I, little Brother Francis, your servant, confirm to you, 
so far as I am able, this most holy benediction. Amen. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS IN THE LATER 

MIDDLE AGES 

66. The Interdict Laid on France by Innocent III. (1200) 

Two of the most effective weapons at the service of the mediseval 
Church were excommunication and the interdict. By the ban of ex- 
communication the proper ecclesiastical authorities could exclude a 
heretic or otherwise objectionable person from all religious privileges, 
thereby cutting him off from association with the faithful and consign- 
ing him irrevocably (unless he repented) to Satan. The interdict differed 
from excommunication in being less sweeping in its condemnatory char- 
acter, and also in being applied to towns, provinces, or countries rather 
than to individuals. As a rule the interdict undertook to deprive the 
inhabitants of a specified region of the use of certain of the sacraments, 
of participation in the usual religious services, and of the right of Chris- 
tian burial. It did not expel men from church membership, as did 
excommunication, but it suspended most of the privileges and rights 
flowing from such membership. The interdict was first employed by the 
clergy of north France in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the 
twelfth it was adopted by the papacy on account of its obvious value 
as a means of disciplining the monarchs of western Europe. Because 
of its effectiveness in stirring up popular indignation against sovereigns 
who incurred the papal displeasure, by the time of Innocent III. (1198-' 
1216) it had come to be employed for political as well as for purely 
religious purposes, though generally the two considerations were closely 
intertwined. A famous and typical instance of its use was that of the 
year 1200, described below. 

In August, 1193, Philip Augustus, king of France, married Ingeborg, 
second sister of King Knut VI. of Denmark. At the time Philip was 

380 



INTERDICT LAID ON FRANCE BY INNOCENT III. 381 

contemplating an invasion of England and hoped through the marriage 
to assure himself of Danish aid. Circumstances soon changed his plans, 
however, and almost immediately he began to treat his new wife coldly, 
with the obvious purpose of forcing her to return to her brother's court. 
Failing in this, he convened his nobles and bishops at Compiegne and 
got from them a decree of divorce, on the flimsy pretext that the mar- 
riage with Ingeborg had been illegal on account of the latter's distant 
relationship to Elizabeth of Hainault, Philip's first wife. Ingeborg 
and her brother appealed to Rome, and Pope Celestine III. dispatched 
letter after letter and legate after legate to the French court, but with- 
out result. Indeed, after three years, Philip, to clinch the matter, as he 
thought, married Agnes of Meran, daughter of a Bavarian nobleman, 
and shut up Ingeborg in a convent at Soissons. In 1198, while the 
affair stood thus, Celestine died and was succeeded by Innocent III., 
under whom the papal power was destined to attain a height hitherto 
unknown. Innocent flatly refused to sanction the divorce or to recog- 
nize the second marriage, although he was not pope, of course, until 
some years after both had occurred. On the ground that the whole 
subject of marriage lay properly within the jurisdiction of the Church, 
Innocent demanded that Philip cast off the beautiful Agnes and 
restore Ingeborg to her rightful place. This Philip promptly refused 
to do. 

The threat of an interdict failing to move him, the Pope proceeded to 
put his threat into execution. In January, 1200, the interdict was pro- 
nounced and, though the king's power over the French clergy was so 
strong that many refused to heed the voice from Rome, gradually 
the discontent and indignation of the people grew until after nine 
months it became apparent that the king must yield. He did so as 
gracefully as he could, promising to take back Ingeborg and submit 
the question of a divorce to a council presided over by the papal legate. 
This council, convened in 1201 at Soissons, decided against the king and 
in favor of Ingeborg; but Philip had no intention to submit in good 
faith and, until the death of Agnes in 1204, he maintained his policy of 
procrastination and double-dealing. Even in the later years of the reign 
the unfortunate Ingeborg had frequent cause to complain of harshness 
and neglect at the hand of her royal husband. 

The following are the iDrincipal portions of Innocent's interdict. 



382 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

Source — Martlne, Edmond, and Durand, Ursin, Thesaurus novus Anecdo- 
torum ["New Collection of Unpublished Documents"], Paris, 1717, 
Vol. IV., p. 147. Adapted from translation by Arthiu- C. Howland 
in Univ. oj Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 4, pp. 29-30. 

Let all the churches be closed; let no one be admitted to them, 
except to baptize infants; let them not be otherwise opened, 
except for the purpose of lighting the lamps, or when the priest 
shall come for the Eucharist and holy water for the use of the 
sick. We permit Mass to be celebrated once a week, on Friday, 
early in the morning, to consecrate the Host ^ for the use of the 
sick, but only one clerk is to be admitted to assist the priest. 
Partial sus- ^^^ ^^® clergy preach on Sunday in the vestibules 

pension of of the churches, and in place of the Mass let them 

the services , ,. . . . ^ . ^ ^ . . 

and offices of deliver the word oi God. Let them recite the 

the Church canonical hours ^ outside the churches, where the 

people do not hear them; if they recite an epistle or a gospel, let 

them beware lest the laity hear them; and let them not permit 

the dead to be interred, nor their bodies to be placed unburied 

in the cemeteries. Let them, moreover, say to the laity that 

they sin and transgress grievously by burying bodies in the 

earth, even in unconsecrated ground, for in so doing they assume 

to themselves an office pertaining to others. 

Let them forbid their parishioners to enter churches that may 

be open in the king's territory, and let them not bless the wallets 

of pilgrims, except outside the churches. Let them not cele- 

„ „ . brate the offices in Passion week, but refrain 

How Easter ' 

should be ob- even until Easter day, and then let them cele- 
brate in private, no one being admitted except 
the assisting priest, as above directed; let no one communicate, 
even at Easter, unless he be sick and in danger of death. During 
the same week, or on Palm Sunday, let them announce to their 

1 The consecrated wafer, believed to be the body of Christ, which in the 
Mass is offered as a sacrifice; also the bread before consecration. 

2 Certain periods of the day, set apart by the laws of the Church, for the 
duties of prayer and devotion; also certain portions of the Breviary to be used 
at stated hours. The seven canonical hours are matins and lauds, the first, 
third, sixth, and ninth hours, vespers, and compline. 



THE BULL " UN AM SANCTAM " OF BONIFACE VIIL 383 

parishioners that they may assemble on Easter morning before 
the church and there have permission to eat fles-h and conse- 
crated bread. . . . Let the priest confess all who desire 
it in the portico of the church; if the church have no portico, 
Arrangements ^^ direct that in bad or rainy weather, and not 
for confession otherwise, the nearest door of the church may 
be opened and confessions heard on its threshold (all being ex- 
cluded except the one who is to confess), so that the priest and 
the penitent can be heard by those who are outside the church. 
If, however, the weather be fair, let the confession be heard in 
front of the closed doors. Let no vessels of holy water be placed 
outside the church, nor shall the priests carry them any- 
where; for all the sacraments of the Church beyond these two 
which are reserved ^ are absolutely prohibited. Extreme unction, 
which is a holy sacrament, may not be given.^ 

67. The Bull " Unam Sanctam " of Boniface VIII. (1302) 

In the history of the mediaeval Church at least three great periods of 
conflict between the papacy and the temporal powers can be distin- 
guished. The first was the era of Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of Ger- 
many [see p. 261]; the second was that of Innocent III. and John of 
England and Philip Augustus of France [see p. 380]; the third was that 
of Boniface VIII . and Philip the Fair of France. In many respects the 
most significant document pertaining to the last of these struggles is 
the papal bull, given below, commonly designated by its opening words, 
Unam Sanctam. 

The question at issue in the conflict of Boniface VIII . and Philip the 
Fair was the old one as to whether the papacy should be allowed to 
dominate European states in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. 
The Franconian emperors, .in the eleventh century, made stubborn 
resistance to such domination, but the immediate result was only partial 

1 That is, infant baptism and the viaticum (the Lord's Supper when ad- 
ministered to persons in immediate danger of death). 

2 Extreme unction is the sacrament of anointing in the last hours, — the 
appHcation of consecrated oil by a priest to all the senses, i. e., to eyes, ears, 
nostrils, etc., of a person when in immediate danger of death. The sacra- 
ment is performed for the remission of sins. 



384 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

success, while later efforts to keep up the contest practically ruined the 
power of the house of Hohenstaufen. Even Philip Augustus, at the 
opening of the thirteenth century, had been compelled to yield, at least 
outwardly, to the demands of the papacy respecting his marriages 
and his national policies. With the revival of the issue under Boni- 
face and Philip, however, the tide turned, for at last there had arisen 
a nation whose sovereign had so firm a grip upon the loyalty of his sub- 
jects that he could defy even the power of Rome with impunity. 

The quarrel between Boniface and Philip first assumed importance 
in 1296 — two years after the accession of the former and eleven after 
that of the latter. The immediate subject of dispute was the heavy 
taxes which Philip was levying upon the clergy of France and the 
revenues from which he was using in the prosecution of his wars with 
Edward I. of England; but royal and papal interests were fundamentally 
at variance and as both king and pope were of a combative temper, a 
conflict was inevitable, irrespective of taxes or any other particular 
cause of controversy. In 1096 Boniface issued the famous bull Clericis 
Laicos, forbidding laymen (including monarchs) to levy subsidies on the 
clergy without papal consent and prohibiting the clergy to pay sub- 
sidies so levied. Philip the Fair was not mentioned in the bull, but the 
measure was clearly directed primarily at him. He retaliated by pro- 
hibiting the export of money, plate, etc., from the realm, thereby cut- 
ting off the accustomed papal revenues from France. In 1297 an ap- 
parent reconciliation was effected, the Pope practically suspending the 
bull so far as France was concerned, though only to secure relief from 
the conflict with Philip while engaged in a struggle with the rival Colonna 
family at Rome. 

In 1301 the contest was renewed, mainly because of the indiscretion 
of a papal legate, Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, who vilified the 
king and was prornptly imprisoned for his violent language. Boniface 
took up the cause of Saisset and called an ecclesiastical council to regu- 
late the affairs of church and state in France and to rectify the injuries 
wrought by King Philip. The claim to papal supremacy in temporal as 
well as spiritual affairs, which Boniface proposed thus to make good, 
was boldly stated in a new bull — that of AuscuUa Fill — in 1301. At the 
same time the bull Clericis Laicos was renewed for France. Philip knew 
that the Franconians and his own Capetian predecessors had failed in 



THE BULL "UNAM SANCTAM " OF BONIFACE VlII. 385 

their struggles with Rome chiefly for the reason that they had been 
lacldng in consistent popular support. National feeling was unquestion- 
ably stronger in the France of 1301 than in the Germany of 1077, or even 
in the France of 1200; but to make doubly sure, Philip, in 1302, caused 
the first meeting of a complete States General to be held, and from this 
body, representing the various elements of the French people, he got 
reliable pledges of support in his efforts to resist the temporal aggressions 
of the papacy. It was at this juncture that Boniface issued the bull 
Unam Sanctam, which has well been termed the classic mediaeval ex- 
pression of the papal claims to universal temporal sovereignty. 

In 1303 an assembly of French prelates and magnates, under the 
inspiration of Philip, brought charges of heresy and misconduct against 
Boniface and called for a meeting of a general ecclesiastical council to 
depose him. Boniface decided to issue a bull excommunicating and 
deposing PhiUp. But before the date set for this step (September, 1303) 
a catastrophe befell the papacy which resulted in an unexpected termi- 
nation of the episode. On the day before the bull of deposition was to 
be issued William of Nogaret, whom Philip had sent to Rome to force 
Boniface to call a general council to try the charges against himself, 
led a band of troops to Anagni and took the Pope prisoner with the in- 
tention of carrying him to France for trial. After three days the inhabi- 
tants of Anagni attacked the Frenchmen and drove them out and 
Boniface, who had barely escaped death, returned to Rome. The un- 
fortunate Pope never recovered, however, from the effects of the outrage 
and his death in October (1303) left Philip, by however unworthy 
means, a victor. From this point the papacy passes under the domi- 
nation of the French court and in 1309 began the dark period of the so- 
called Babylonian Captivity, during most of which the popes dwelt at 
Avignon under conditions precisely the reverse of the ideal which Boni- 
face so clearly asserted in Unam Sanctam. 



Source — ^Text based upon the papal register published by P. Mury in Revue 
des Questions Historiques, Vol. XLVI. (July, 1889), pp. 255-25G. 
Translated in Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, Source 
Book for Mediaeval History (New York), 1905, pp. 314-317. 

The true faith compels us to believe that there is one holy 
Catholic Apostolic Church, and this we firmly believe and plainly 
Med. Hist.— 25 



386 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

confess. And outside of her there is no salvation or remission 

of sins, as the Bridegroom says in the Song of Solomon: "My 

dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, 

she is the choice one of her that bare her" [Song of Sol.,vi. 9]; 

which represents the one mystical body, whose head is Christ, 

but the head of Christ is God [1 Cor., xi. 3]. In this Church there 

A ass f • ^^ "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" [Eph., 

of the unity iv. 5]. For in the time of the flood there was only 

one ark, that of Noah, prefiguring the one Church, 

and it was ''finished above in one cubit" [Gen., vi. 16], and had 

but one helmsman and master, namely, Noah. And we read 

that all things on the earth outside of this ark were destroyed. 

This Church we venerate as the only one, since the Lord said by 

the prophet: "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from 

the power of the dog " [Ps., xxii. 20]. He prayed for his soul, that 

is, for himself, the head; and at the same time for the body, and 

he named his body, that is, the one Church, because there is but 

one Bridegroom [John, iii. 29], and because of the unity of the 

faith, of the sacraments, and of his love for the Church. This 

is the seamless robe of the Lord which was not rent but parted 

by lot [John, xix. 23]. 

Therefore there is one body of the one and only Church, and 

one head, not two heads, as if the Church were a monster. And 

this head is Christ, and his vicar, Peter and his successor; for the 

Lord himself said to Peter: "Feed my sheep" [John, xxi. 16]. 

And he said "my sheep," in general, not these or those sheep in 

particular; from which it is clear that all were committed to him. 

,, . ^ If, therefore, Greeks [i.e., the Greek Church] or 
An allusion to ' ' "- ' , -" 

the Petrine any one else say that they are not subject to Peter 
upremacy ^^^ -^^^ successors, they thereby necessarily con- 

fess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. For the Lord says, 
in the Gospel of John, that there is one fold and only one shep- 
herd [John, X. 16]. By the words of the gospel we are taught that 
the two swords, namely, the spiritual authority and the temporal, 



THE BULL "UNAM SANCTAM " OF BONIFACE VIII. 387 

are in the power of the Church. For when the apostles said 
"Here are two swords" [Luke, xxii. 38] — that is, in the Church, 
since it was the apostles who were speaking — the Lord did not 
answer, "It is too much," but "It is enough." Whoever denies 
that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter does not properly 
understand the word of the Lord when He said: "Put up thy 
sword into the sheath" [John, xviii. 11]. Both swords, therefore. 
The proper re- the spiritual and the temporal, are in the power 
itial\n/ t'em- ^^ ^^^ Church. The former is to be used by the 
poral powers Church, the latter for the Church; the one by the 
hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and knights, 
but at the command and permission of the priest. Moreover, it 
is necessary for one sword to be under the other, and the tem- 
poral authority to be subjected to the spiritual; for the apostle 
says, "For there is no power but of God: and the powers that be 
are ordained of God" [Rom., xiii. 1]; but they would not be or- 
dained unless one were subjected to the other, and, as it were, 
the lower made the higher by the other. 

For, according to St. Dionysius,^ it is a law of divinity that 
the lowest is made the highest through the intermediate. Ac- 
cording to the law of the universe all things are not equally and 
directly reduced to order, but the lowest are fitted into their 
order through the intermediate, and the lower through the 
higher. And we must necessarily admit that the spiritual power 
_, . surpasses any earthly power in dignity and honor, 

ority of the l)ecause spiritual things surpass temporal things. 
We clearly see that this is true from the paying 
of tithes, from the benediction, from the sanctification, fromi the 
receiving of the power, and from the governing of these things. 
For the truth itself declares that the spiritual power must 
establish the temporal power and pass judgment on it if it is 
not good. Tlius the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the Church 

1 St. Dionysius was bishop of Alexandria about the middle of the third 
century. He was a pupil of the great theologian Origen and himself a writer 
of no small ability on the doctrinal questions which vexed the early Church. 



388 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

and the ecclesiastical power is fulfilled: "See, I have this day 
set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, 
and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, 
and to plant" [Jer., i. 10]. 

Therefore if the temporal power errs, it will be judged by the 
spiritual power, and if the lower spiritual power errs, it will be 
The highest judged by its superior. But if the highest 
spiritual pow- spiritual power errs, it cannot be judged by 
responsible to men, but by God alone. For the apostle says: 
God alone a g^^ ^le that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet 

he himself is judged of no man" [1 Cor., ii. 15]. Now this au- 
thority, although it is given to man and exercised through man, 
is not human, but divine. For it was given by the word of the 
Lord to Peter, and the rock was made firm to him and his suc- 
cessors, in Christ himself, whom he had confessed. For the Lord 
said to Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall 
be loosed in heaven" [Matt., xvi. 19]. 

Therefore, whosoever resisteth this power thus ordained of 
God resisteth the ordinance of God [Rom., xiii. 2], unless there 
are two principles [beginnings], as Manichaeus ^ pretends there 
are. But this we judge to be false and heretical. For Moses says 
that, not in the beginnings, but in the beginning, God created 
Submission to the heaven and the earth [Gen.,i. 1]. We there- 
senti^l'^to'^sal- ^°^® declare, say, and affirm that submission on 
vation the part of every man to the bishop of Rome is 

altogether necessary for his salvation. 

1 Manichaeus was a learned Persian who, in the third century, worked out 
a system of doctrine which sought to combine the principles of Christianity 
with others taken over from the Persian and kindred Oriental religions. 
The most prominent feature of the resulting creed was the conception of an 
absolute dualism running throughout the universe — light and darkness, 
good and evil, soul and body — which existed from the beginning and should 
exist forever. The Manichsean sect spread from Persia into Asia Minor 
North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Though persecuted by Diocletian, and after- 
wards by some of the Christian emperors, it had many adherents as late as the 
sixth century, and certain of its ideas appeared under new names at still later 
times, notably among the Albigenses in southern France in the twelfth century. 



GREAT SCHISM AND COUNCILS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE 389 

68. The Great Schism and the Councils of Pisa and Constance 

The "Babylonian Captivity" — begun in 1305, or perhaps more prop- 
erly in 1309, when the French Pope, Clement V., took up liis residence 
regularly at Avignon — lasted until 1377. During these sixty or seventy 
years the College of Cardinals consisted chiefly of Frenchmen, all of the 
seven popes were of French nationality, and for the most part the 
papal authority was little more than a tool in the hands of the aggres- 
sive French sovereigns. In 1377, at the solicitation of the Italian clergy 
and people. Pope Gregory XI. removed to Rome, where he died in 1378. 
In the election that followed the Roman j^opulace, determined to bring 
the residence of the popes at Avignon to an end once for all, demanded a 
Roman, or at least an Italian, pope. The majority of the cardinals were 
French, but they could not agree upon a French candidate and, intimi- 
dated by the threats of the mob, they at last chose a Neapolitan who 
took the name Urban VI. A few months of Urban 's obstinate adminis- 
tration convinced the cardinals that they had made a serious mistake, 
and, on the ground that their choice had been unduly influenced by 
popular clamor, they sought to nullify the election and to replace Urban 
by a Genevan who took the title Clement VII. Urban utterly refused 
thus to be put aside, so that there were now two popes, each duly elected 
by the College of Cardinals and each claiming the undivided allegiance 
of Christendom. This was the beginning of the Great Schism, destined 
to work havoc in the Church for a full generation, or until finally ended 
in 1417. Clement VII. fixed his abode at Avignon and French infiuence 
secured for him the support of Spain, Scotland, and Sicily. The rest of 
Europe, displeased with the subordination of the papacy to France and 
French interests, declared for Urban, who was pledged to maintain the 
papal capital at Rome. 

France must be held responsible in the main for the evils of the Great 
Schism — a breach in the Church which she deliberately created and for 
many years maintained; but she herself suffered by it more than any 
other nation of Europe because of the annates,^ the decime,^ and other 

1 Annates were payments made to the pope by newly elected or appointed 
ecclesiastical officials of the higher sort. They were supposed to comprise 
the first year's income from the bishop's or abbot's benefice. 

2 The decime was an extraordinary royal revenue derived from the pay- 
ment by the clergy of a tenth of the annual income from their benefices. Its 



390 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

taxes which were imposed upon the French clergy and people to supjDort 
the luxurious and at times extravagant papal court at Avignon, or which 
were exacted by ambitious monarchs under the cover of papal license. 
In the course of time the impossible situation created by the Schism 
demanded a remedy and in fairness it should be observed that in the 
work of adjustment the leading part was taken by the French. After 
the death of Clement VII., in 1394, the French court sincerely desired 
to bring the Schism to an end on terms that would be fair to all. Al- 
ready in 1393 King Charles VI, had laid the case before the University 
of Paris and asked for an opinion as to the best course to be pursued. 
The authorities of the university requested each member of the various 
faculties to submit his idea of a solution of the problem and from the 
mass of suggestions thus brought together a committee of fifty-four 
professors, masters, and doctors worked out the three lines of action 
set forth in selection (a) below. The first plan, i.e., that both popes 
should resign as a means of restoring harmony, was accepted as the 
proi^er one by an assembly of the French clergy convened in 1395. It 
was doomed to defeat, however, by the vacillation of both Benedict 
XIII. at Avignon and Boniface IX. at Rome, and in the end it was 
agreed to fall back upon the third plan which the University of Paris had 
proposed, i.e., the convening of a general council. There was no doubt 
that such a council could legally be summoned only by the pojDe, but 
finally the cardinals attached to both popes deserted them and united 
in issuing the call in their own name. 

The council met at Pisa in 1409 and proceeded to clear up the question 
of its own legality and authority by issuing the unequivocal declaration 
comprised in (b) below. It furthermore declared both popes deposed and 
elected a new one, who took the name Alexander V. Neither of the 
previous popes, however, recognized the council's action, so now there 
were three rivals instead of two and the situation was only so much 
worse than before. In 1410 Alexander V. died and the cardinals chose 
as his successor John XXIII., a man whose life was notoriously wicked, 

prototype was the Saladin tithe, imposed by Philip Augustus (1180-1223) 
for the financing of his crusade. In the Jatter half of the thirteenth century, 
and throughout the fourteenth, the decime was called for by the kings with 
considerable frequency, often ostensibly for crusading purposes, and it was 
generally obtained by a more or less compulsory vote of the clergy, or with- 
out their consent at all. 



GREAT SCHISM AND COUNCILS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE 391 

but who was far from lacking in political sagacity. Three years later 
the capture of Rome by the king of Naples forced John to appeal for 
assistance to the Emperor Sigismund; and Sigismund demanded, before 
extending the desired aid, that a general church council be summoned 
to meet on German soil for the adjustment of the tangled papal situa- 
tion. The result was the Council of Constance, whose sessions extended 
from November, 1414, to April, 1418, and which, because of its general 
European character, was able to succeed where the Council of Pisa had 
failed. In the decree Sacrosanda given below (c), issued in April, 
1415, we have the council's notable assertion of its supreme authority 
in ecclesiastical matters, even as against the pope himself. The 
Schism was healed with comparative facility. Gregory XIL, who 
had been the pope at Rome, but who was now in exile, sent en- 
voys to offer his abdication. Benedict XIII., likewise a fugitive, 
was deposed and found himself without supporters. John XXIII. 
was deposed for his unworthy character and had no means of offer- 
ing resistance. The cardinals, together with representatives of the 
five "nations " into which the council was divided, harmoniously selected 
for pope a Roman cardinal, who assumed the name of Martin V. This 
was in 1417. The Schism was at an end, though the work of combating 
heresy and of propagating reform within the Church went on in succes- 
sive councils, notably that of Basel (1431-1449). 

Sources — (a) Lucse d'Achery, Spicilegium, sive Collectio veterum aliquot 
Scriptorum qui in Gallice Bibliothecis Delituerant ["Gleanings, 
or a Collection of some Early Writings, which survive in Gal- 
lic Libraries"], Paris, 1723, Vol. I., p. 777. Translated in 
Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book for Mediceval History 
(New York, 1905), pp. 326-327. 

(b) Raynaldus, Annales, anno 1409 ["Annals, year 1409"], § 71. 

(c) Von der Hardt, Magnum Constantiense Concilium ["Great 

Council of Constance"], Vol. II., p. 98. 

(a) 

The first way. Now the first way to end the Schism is that 
both parties should entirely renounce and resign all rights which 
they may have, or claim to have, to the papal office. 

The second way. But if both cling tenaciously to their rights 
and refuse to resign, as they have thus far done, we would propose 



392 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

a resort to arbitration. That is, that they should together choose 
worthy and suitable men, or permit such to be chosen in a 
Three possible regular and canonical way, and these should have 

solutions of the f^n power and authority to discuss the case and 

Schism offered . 

by the Univer- decide it, and if necessary and expedient and 

sity 01 Pans approved by those who, according to the canon 
law, have the authority [i.e., the cardinals], they might also 
have the right to proceed to the election of a pope. 

The third way. If the rival popes, after being urged in a 
brotherly and friendly manner, will not accept either of the 
above ways, there is a third way which we propose as an ex- 
cellent remedy for this sacrilegious schism. We mean that the 
matter should be left to a general council. This general council 
might be composed, according to canon law, only of prelates; or, 
since many of them are very illiterate, and many of them are 
bitter partisans of one or the other pope, there might be joined 
with the prelates an equal number of masters and doctors of 
theology and law from the faculties of approved universities. 
Or, if this does not seem sufficient to any one, there might be added, 
besides, one or more representatives from cathedral chapters and 
the chief monastic orders, to the end that all decisions might be 
rendered only after most careful examination and mature de- 
liberation. 

(b) 

This holy and general council, representing the universal 

Church, decrees and declares that the united college of cardinals 

was empowered to call the council, and that the power to call 

TV , J.. such a council belongs of right to the aforesaid 

Declarations ^ *^ 

of the Council holy college of cardinals, especially now when 
there is a detestable schism. The council further 
declares that this holy council, representing the universal Church, 
caused both claimants of the papal throne to be cited in the 
gates and doors of the churches of Pisa to come and hear the 
final decision [in the matter of the Schism] pronounced, or to 



THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION OF BOURGES 393 

give a good and sufficient reason why such sentence should not 
be rendered. 

(c) 
This holy synod of Constance, being a general council, and 
legally assembled in the Holy Spirit for the praise of God and 
for ending the present schism, and for the union and reforma- 
tion of the Church of God in its head and in its members, in order 
more easily, more securely, more completely, and more fully to 
bring about the union and reformation of the Church of God, 
The Council of ordains, declares, and decrees as follows: First it 

Constance as- declares that this synod, legally assembled, is a 
serts its supe- , .. , i ^ i i- 

riority to even general council, and represents the Catholic 

the papacy church militant and has its authority directly 
from Christ; and everybody, of whatever rank or dignity, in- 
cluding also the pope, is bound to obey this council in those 
things which pertain to the faith, to the ending of this schism, 
and to a general reformation of the Church in its head and mem- 
bers. Likewise it declares that if any one, of whatever rank, 
condition, or dignity, including also the pope, shall refuse to 
obey the commands, statutes, ordinances, or orders of this holy 
council, or of any other holy council properly assembled, in 
regard to the ending of the Schism and to the reformation of the 
Church, he shall be subject to the proper punishment, and, unless 
he repents, he shall be duly punished, and, if necessary, recourse 
shall be had to other aids of justice. 

69. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) 

The Council of Basel, convened in 1431, had for its object a thorough- 
going reformation of the Church, "in its head and its members," from 
papacy to parish priest. Like all of the councils of the period, its spirit 
was distinctly anti-papal and for this reason Pope Eugene IV. sought 
to bring it under his control by transferring it to Bologna and, failing 
in this, to turn its deliberations into channels other than criticism of 
the papacy. While the negotiations of Eugene and the council were in 



394 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

progress a step fraught with great significance was taken in France in 
the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.^ France was 
the only country in which the principles laid down by the councils — 
Pisa, Constance, Basel, and the rest — had taken firm hold. In 1438 
Charles VII. convened at Bourges an assembly composed of leading pre- 
lates, councillors, and princes of the royal blood, to which the Pope and 
the Council of Basel both sent delegates. This assembly proceeded to 
adapt the decrees of the council to the conditions and needs of France, 
on the evident assumption that the will of the French magnates in such 
matters was superior to that of both pope and council, so far as France 
was concerned. The action at Bourges well illustrates the growing 
spirit of French nationality which had sprung up since the recent 
achievements of Joan of Arc. 

The Pragmatic Sanction dealt in the main with four subjects — 
the authority of church councils, the diminishing of papal patron- 
age, the restriction of papal taxation, and the limitation of appeals 
to Rome. Together these matters are commonly spoken of as the 
" Galilean liberties," i.e., the liberties of the Gallic or French church, 
and they implied the right of the national church to administer its own 
affairs with only the slightest' interference from the pope or other outside 
powers; in other words, they were essentially anti-papal. Louis XL, the 
successor of Charles VII., for diplomatic reasons, sought to revoke the 
Pragmatic Sanction, but the Parlement of Paris refused to register 
the ordinance and for all practical purposes the Pragmatic was main- 
tained until 1516. In that year Francis I. established the relations of 
the papacy and the French clergy on the basis of a new "concordat," 
which, however, was not very unlike the Pragmatic. The Pragmatic 
is of interest to the student of French history mainly because of the de- 
gree in which it enhanced the power of the crown, particularly in re- 
spect to the ecclesiastical affairs of the realm, and because of the testi- 
mony it bears to the declining influence of the papacy in the stronger 
nations like France and England. The text printed below represents 
only an abstract of the document, which in all included thirty-three 
chapters. 

1 Pragmatic, in the general sense, means any sort of decree of public 
importance; in its more special usage it denotes an ordinance of the crown 
regulating the relations of the national clergy with the papacy. The modern 
equivalent is "concordat." 



THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION OF BOURGES 395 



Source. — Text in Vilevault et Brequigny, Ordonnances des Rois de France 
de la Troisicme Race (Paris, 1772), Vol. XIII. , pp. 267-291. 

The king declares that, according to the oath taken at their 
coronation, kings are bound to defend and protect the holy 
Charles VII. Church, its ministers and its sacred offices, and 

recognizes the zealously to guard in their kingdoms the decrees 
obligations of i . 

the king to the of the holy fathers. The general council as- 
Church sembled at Basel to continue the work begun by 
the councils of Constance and Siena,^ and to labor for the reform 
of the Church, in both its head and members, having had pre- 
sented to it numerous decrees and regulations, with the request 
that it accept them and cause them to be observed in the king- 
dom, the king has convened an assembly composed of prelates 
and other ecclesiastics representing the clergy of France and of 
the Dauphine.^ He has presided in person over its deliberations, 
surrounded by his son, the princes of the blood, and the principal 
lords of the realm. He has listened to the ambassadors of the 
Pope and the council. From the examination of prelates and 

,, the most renowned doctors, and from the thor- 

Abuses preva- ' 

lent in the oughgoing discussions of the assembly, it appears 

that, from the falling into decay of the early 

discipline, the churches of the kingdom have been made to suffer 

from all sorts of insatiable greed ; that the reserve and the grace 

1 When the Council of Constance came to an end, in April, 1418, it was 
agreed between this body and Pope Martin V. that a similar council should 
be convened at Pavia in 1423. When the time arrived, conditions were far 
from favorable, but the University of Paris pressed the Pope to observe his 
pledge in the matter and the council was duly convened. Very few members 
appeared at Pavia, and, the plague soon breaking out there, the meeting 
was transferred to Siena. Even there only five German prelates were present, 
six French, and not one Spanish. Small though it was, the council entered 
upon a course so independent and self-assertive that in the following year 
the Pope was glad to take advantage of its paucity of numbers to declare 
it dissolved. 

2 The Dauphine was a region on the east side of the Rhone which, in 1349, 
was purchased of Humbert, Dauphin of Vienne, by Philip VI., and ceded by 
the latter to his grandson Charles, the later Charles V. (1364-1380). Charles 
assumed the title of "the Dauphin," which became the established designa- 
tion of the heir-apparent to the French throne. 



396 THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS 

expedative ^ have given rise to grievous abuses and unbearable 
burdens; that the most notable and best endowed benefices have 
fallen into the hands of unknown men, who do not conform at 
all to the requirement of residence and who do not understand the 
speech of the people committed to their care, and consequently 
are neglectful of the needs of their souls, like mercenaries who 
dream of nothing whatever but temporal gain; that thus the 
worship of Christ is declining, piety is enfeebled, the laws of the 
Church are violated, and buildings for religious uses are falling 
in ruin. The clergy abandon their theological studies, because 
there is no hope of advancement. Conflicts without number rage 
over the possession of benefices, plurality of which is coveted by 
an execrable ambition. Simony is everywhere glaring; the 
prelates and other collators ^ are pillaged of their rights and their 
ministry; the rights of patrons are impaired; and the wealth of 
the kingdom goes into the hands of foreigners, to the detriment 
of the clergy. 

Since, in the judgment of the prelates and other ecclesiastics, 
the decrees of the holy council of Basel seemed to afford a suitable 
The decrees of remedy for all these evils, after mature delibera- 
with^some^*^^ tion, we have decided to accept them— some 
modifications without change, others with certain modifica- 
tions — without wishing to cast doubt upon the power and au- 
thority of the council, but at the same time taking account of 
the necessities of the occasion and of the customs of the nation. 

1. General councils shall be held every ten years, in places to 
be designated by the pope. 

1 Under the grdce expedative the pope conferred upon a prelate a benefice 
which at the time was filled, to be assumed as soon as it should fall vacant. 
Benefices of larger importance, such as the offices of bishop and abbot, 
were often subject to the reserve; that is, the pope regularly reserved to him- 
self the right of filling them, sometimes before, sometimes after, the vacancy 
occurred. These acts constituted clear assumptions by the popes of power 
which under the law of the Church was not theirs, and, though the framers 
of the Pragmatic Sanction had motives which were more or less selfish for 
combatting the reserve and the grdce expedative, there can be no question 
that the abuses aimed at were as real as they were represented to be. 

2 Those who presented and installed men in benefices. 



THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION OF BOURGES 397 

2. The authority of the general council is superior to that of 
the pope in all that pertains to the faith, the extirpation of 
schism, and the reform of the Church in both head and mem- 
bers.^ 

3. Election is reestablished for ecclesiastical offices; but the 
' king, or the princes of his kingdom, without violating the canoni- 
cal rules, may make recommendations when elections are to occur 
in the chapters or the monasteries.^ 

4. The popes shall not have the right to reserve the collation 
of benefices, or to bestow any benefice before it becomes vacant. 

5. All grants of benefices made by the pope in virtue of the 
droit d' expectative are hereby declared null. Those who shall 
have received such benefices shall be punished by the secular 
pow^. The popes shall not have the right to interfere by the cre- 
ation of canonships.^ 

6. Appeals to Rome are prohibited until every other grade of 
jurisdiction shall have been exhausted. 

7. Annates are prohibited.^ 

1 These first two chapters reproduce without change the decrees of the 
Council of Basel. The second reiterates, in substance, the declaration of the 
Council of Constance [see p. 393]. 

2 That is, the "canonical" system of election of bishops by the chapters 
and of abbots by the monks. The Pragmatic differs in this clause from the 
decree of the Council of Basel in allowing temporal princes to recommend 
persons for election. 

3 This means that the pope is not to add to the number of canons in any 
cathedral chapter as a means of influencing the composition and deliberations 
of that body. 

i Annates were ordinarily the first year's revenues of a benefice which, 
under the prevailing system, were supposed to be paid by the incumbent to 
the pope. The Pragmatic goes on to provide that during the lifetime of 
Pope Eugene one-fifth of the accustomed annates should continue to be 
paid. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE EMPIRE IN THE TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOUR- 
TEENTH CENTURIES 

70. The Peace of Constance (1183) 

With the election of Frederick Barbarossa as emperor, in 1152, a new 
stage of the great paj)al-imperial combat was entered upon, though 
under conditions quite different from those surrounding the contest in 
the preceding century [see Chap. XVI]. The Empire was destiijjed to 
succumb in the end to the papacy, but with a sovereign of Frederick's 
energy and ability at its head it was able at least to make a stubborn 
fight and to meet defeat with honor. The new reign was inaugurated by 
a definite announcement of the Emperor's intention to consolidate and 
strengthen the imperial government throughout all Germany and Italy. 
The task in Germany was far from simple ; in Italy it was the most for- 
midable that could have been conceived, and this for the reason that the 
Italian population was largely gathered in cities with strong political 
and military organization, with all the traditions of practical indepen- 
dence, and with no thought of submitting to the government of an em- 
peror or any other claimant to more than merely nominal sovereignty. 

Trouble began almost at once between Frederick and the free commune 
of Milan, though war was averted for a time by the oaths taken to the 
Emperor on the occasion of his first expedition across the Alps in 1 154. 
Between that date and 1158 the consuls of the city were detected in 
treacherous conduct and, the people refusing to disavow them, in the 
latter year the Emperor again crossed the Alps, bent on nothing less 
than the annihilation of the commune and the dispersion of its inhabi- 
tants. He carried with him a larger army than a head of the Holy 
Roman Empire had ever led into Italy. The Milanese submitted, under 
conditions extremely humiliating, and Frederick, after being assured 
by the doctors of law at the new university of Bologna that he was acting 

398 



THE PEACE OF CONSTANCE 399 

quite within the letter of the Roman law, proceeded to lay claim to the 
regalia (royal rights, such as tolls from roads and rivers, products of 
mines, and the estates of criminals), to the right to levy an extraordinary 
war tax, and to that of appointing the chief civic magistrates. Dis- 
affection broke out at once in many of the communes, but chiefly at 
Milan; whereupon Frederick came promptly to the conclusion that the 
time had arrived to rid himself of this irreconcilable opponent of his 
measures. The city was besieged and, after its inhabitants had been 
starved into surrender, almost completely destroyed (1162). 

Only temporarily did the barbarous act have its intended effect; the 
net result was a widespread revival of the communal spirit, which ex- 
pressed itself in the formation of a sturdy confederacy known as the 
Lombard League. One of the League's first acts was to rebuild Milan, 
under whose leadership the struggle with the Emperor was actively 
renewed. In 1168 a new city was founded at the foot of the Alps near 
Pavia to serve as a base of operations in the campaign which the League 
proposed to wage against the common enemy. It was given the name 
Alessandria (or Alexandria) in honor of Pope Alexander III., who was 
friendly to the cause of the cities. In 1174 Frederick began an open 
attack on the League, but in 1176, at Leg'nano, he suffered an over- 
whelming defeat, due largely to his failure to receive reinforcements 
from Germany. The adjustment of peace was intrusted to an assembly 
at Venice in which all parties were represented. The result was the 
treaty of Venice (1177), the advantages of which were wholly against the 
Empire. A truce of six years was granted the. cities, with the under- 
standing that all details were to be arranged within, or at the expiration 
of, that time. 

When the close of the period arrived, in 1183, Frederick no longer 
dreamed of subduing and punishing the rebellious Italians, but in- 
stead was quite ready to agree to a permanent peace. The result was 
the Peace of Constance, which has been described as the earliest in- 
ternational agreement of the kind in modern history. By this instru- 
ment the theoretical overlordship of the Emperor in Italy was reasserted, 
though in fact ^t had never been denied. Beyond this, however, the 
communes were/ recognized as essentially independent. Those who had 
enjoyed the right to choose their own magistrates retained it; their 
financial obligations to the Emperor were clearly defined; and the 



400 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

League was conceded to be a legitimate and permanent organization. 
By yielding on numerous vital points the Empire had vindicated its 
right to exist, but its administrative machinery, so far as Italy was 
concerned, was still further impaired. This machinery, it must be 
said, had never been conspicuously effective south of the Alps. As 
for Frederick, he set out in 1189 upon the Third Crusade, during the 
course of which he met his death in Asia Minor without being permitted 
to see the Holy Land. 

Source — Text in Monumenta Germanice Historica, Legum Sectio IV. (Weiland 
ed.), Vol. I., pp. 411-418. Adapted from translation in Oliver J. 
Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Mediceval History 
(New York, 1905,) pp. 199-202. 

1. We, Frederick, emperor of the Romans, and our son Henry, 
king of the Romans,^ hereby grant to you, the cities, territories, 
c c as* ns to ^^^ persons of the League, the regalia and other 
the cities of rights within and without the cities, as you have 

been accustomed to hold them; that is, each mem- 
ber of the League shall have the same rights as the city of Verona 
has had in the past, or has now. 

2. The members of the League shall exercise freely and without 
interference from us all the rights which they have exercised of old. 

3. These are the rights which are guaranteed to you: the 
fodrum,^ forests, pastures, bridges, streams, mills, fortifications 
of the cities, criminal and civil jurisdiction, and all other rights 
which concern the welfare of the city. 

4. The regalia which are not to be granted to the members 
of the League shall be determined in the following manner: in 
How the re- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ each city, certain men shall be chosen 
galia remain- foj- this purpose from both the bishopric and the 
peror were to city ; these men shall be of good repute, capable 
be determined ^^ deciding these questions, and such as are not 
prejudiced against either party. Acting with the bishop of the 

1 Henry VI. succeeded his father as emperor, reigning from 1190 to 1197. 

2 The term (meaning literally "fodder") designates the obligation to 
furnish provisions for the royal army. The right of demanding such provi- 
sions was now given up by the Emperor. 



THE PEACE OF CONSTANCE 401 

diocese, they shall swear to inquire into the questions of the 
regalia and to set aside those that by right belong to us. If, 
however, the cities do not wish to submit to this inquisition, 
they shall pay to us an annual tribute of 2,000 marks in silver as 
compensation for our regalia. If this sum seems excessive, it 
may be reduced. 

5. If anyone appeals to us in regard to matters which are 
by this treaty admitted to be under your jurisdiction, we agree 
not to hear such an appeal. 

8. All privileges, gifts, and concessions made in the time of the 
war by us or our representatives to the prejudice or injury of the 
cities, territories, or members of the League are to be null and void. 

9. Consuls ^ of cities where the bishop holds the position of 
count from the king or emperor shall receive their office from 
the bishop, if this has been the custom before. In all other cities 
The ^^® consuls shall receive their office from us, in 
consuls the following manner: after they have been 
elected by the city they shall be invested with office by our 
representative in the city or bishopric, unless we are ourselves 
in Lombardy, in which case they shall be invested by us. At the 
end of every five years each city shall send its representative to 
us to receive the investiture. 

10. This arrangement shall be observed by our successor, and 
all such investitures shall be free. 

11. After our death, the cities shall receive investiture in the 
same way from our son and from his successors. 

12. The Emperor shall have the right of hearing appeals in 
cases involving more than 25 pounds, saving the right of the 
Appeals to church of Brescia to hear appeals. The appel- 
the Emperor -^^^^ ^hoW. not, however, be compelled to come to 
Germany, but he shall appeal to the representative of the Em- 
peror in the city or bishopric. This representative shall examine 

1 The consuls — often twelve in niunber — ^were the chief magistrates of 
the typical Italian commune. 

Med. Hist.— 26 



402 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

the case fairly and shall give judgment according to the laws and 
customs of that city. The decision shall be given within two 
months from the time of appeal, unless the case shall have been 
deferred by reason of some legal hindrance or by the consent of 
both parties. 

13. The consuls of cities shall take the oath of allegiance to 
the Emperor before they are invested with office. ~ 

14. Our vassals shall receive investiture from us and shall 
take the vassal's oath of fidelity. All other persons between the 
The oath a-g^s of 15 and 70 shall take the ordinary oath of 
of fidelity • fidelity to the Emperor unless there be some good 
reason why this oath should be omitted. 

17. All injuries, losses, and damages which we or our followers 
have sustained from the League, or any of its members or allies, 
are hereby pardoned, and all such transgressors are hereby re- 
ceived back into our favor. 

,18. We will not remain longer than is necessary in any city 
or bishopric. 

19. It shall be permitted to the cities to erect fortifications 

within or without their boundaries. 

_ .,. „ 20. It shall be permitted to the League to 

Recognition of ... . 

the League's maintain its organization as it now is, or to re- 
right to exist ., p, •. J • 

new it as often as it desires. 

71. Current Rumors Concerning the Life and Character of Frederick II. 

Frederick II. (1194-1250), king of Naples and Sicily and emperor of 
the Holy Roman Empire, was a son of Emperor Henry VI. and a grand- 
son of Frederick Barbarossa. When his father died (1197) it was in- 
tended that the young child's uncle, Philip of Hohenstaufen, should 
occupy the imperial throne temporarily as regent. Philip, however, 
proceeded to assume the position as if in his own right and became en- 
gaged in a deadly conflict with a rival claimant. Otto IV., during which 
the Pope, Innocent III., fanned the flames of civil war and made the situ- 
ation contribute chiefly to the aggrandizement of papal authority in tern- 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF FREDERICK II. 403 

poral affairs. In 1208 Philip was assassinated and in the following year 
Otto received the imperial crown at Rome. Almost immediately, how- 
ever, disagreement broke out between the Pope and the new Emperor, 
chiefly because of the latter's ambition to become king of Sicily. Re- 
penting that he had befriended Otto, Innocent promptly excommuni- 
cated him and set on foot a movement — in which he enlisted the services 
of Philip Augustus of France — to supplant the obnoxious Emperor by 
Frederick of Sicily (the later Frederick II.). Otto was a nephew of 
Richard I. and John of England and the latter was easily persuaded to 
enter into an alliance with him against the papal-French-Sicilian com- 
bination. The result was the battle of Bouvines [see p. 297], in 1214, 
in which John and Otto were hopelessly defeated. Meanwhile, in 1212, 
Frederick had received a secret embassy from Otto's discontented sub- 
jects in Germany, offering him the imperial crown if he would come and 
claim it. In response he had gathered an army and, with the approval 
of Innocent and of Philip Augustus, had crossed the Alps for the pur- 
pose of winning over the German people from Otto to himself. The 
battle of Bouvines (in which Frederick was not engaged, but from which 
he profited immensely) was the death-blow to Otto's cause and Frederick 
was soon recognized universally as head of the Empire. 

The reign of Frederick II. (1212-1250) was a period of large importance 
in European history. The Emperor's efforts and achievements — his 
crusade, his great quarrel with Gregory IX. and Innocent IV., his legisla- 
tion, his struggles with the Lombard League — were full of interest and 
significance, but, after all, not more so than the purely personal aspects 
of his career. Mr. Bryce has a passage which states admirably the posi- 
tion of Frederick with reference to his age and its problems. A portion 
of it is as follows: "Out of the long array of the Germanic successors of 
Charles [Charlemagne], he is, with Otto III.,^ the only one who comes 
before us with a genius and a frame of character that are not those of a 
Northern or a Teuton. There dwelt in him, it is true, all the energy 
and knightly valor of his father Henry and his grandfather Frederick I. 
But along with these, and changing their direction, were other gifts, 
inherited perhaps from his half Norman, half Italian mother and fos- 

1 Otto III., emperor 983-1002. Otto is noted chiefly for his visionary 
project of renewing the imperial splendor of Rome and making her again 
the capital of a world-wide empire. 



404 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

tered by his education in Sicily, where Mussulman and Byzantine in- 
fluences were still potent, a love of luxury and beauty, an intellect re- 
fined, subtle, philosophical. Through the mist of calumny and legend 
it is but dimly that the truth of the man can be discerned, and the out- 
lines that appear serve to quicken rather than appease the curiosity 
with which we regard one of the most extraordinary personages in his- 
tory. A sensualist, yet also a warrior and a politician ; a profound law- 
giver and an impassioned poet; in his youth fired by crusading fervor, 
in later life persecuting heretics while himself accused of blasphemy and 
unbelief; of winning manners and ardently beloved by his followers, but 
with the stain of more than one cruel deed upon his name, he was the 
marvel of his own generation, and succeeding ages looked back with 
awe, not unmingled with pity, upon the inscrutable figure of the last 
emperor who had braved all the terrors of the Church and died beneath 
her ban, the last who had ruled from the sands of the ocean to the shores 
of the Ionian Sea. But while they pitied they condemned. The un- 
dying hatred of the papacy threw round his memory a lurid light; him 
and him alone of all the imperial line, Dante, the worshipper of the 
empire, must perforce deliver to the flames of hell."^ 

The following selections from the Greater Chronicle of Matthew 
Paris comprise some of the stories which were current in Frederick's 
day regarding his manners, ideas, and deeds. Frederick was far ahead 
of his age and it was inevitable that the qualities in him which men could 
not understand or appreciate should become the grounds for dark 
rumors and unsavory suspicions. Matthew Paris was an English monk 
of St. Albans. It is thought that he was called Parisiensis, "the 
Parisian," because of having been born or educated in the capital of 
France. He seems to have confined his attention wholly to the study of 
history, and mainly to the history of his own country. His Chronicle 
takes up the story of English and continental affairs in detail with the 
year 1235 (where Roger of Wendover had stopped in his Flowers of 
History) and continues to the year 1259. His book has been described as 
"jDrobably the most generally useful historical production of the thir- 
teenth century." ^ 

1 James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed., New York, 1904), 
pp. 207-208. For the reference to Dante see the Inferno, Canto X. 

2 James H. Robinson, Readings in European History (Boston, 1904), Vol. 
I., p. 244. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF FREDERICK II. 405 

Source — Matthseus Parisiensis, Chronica Majora [Matthew Paris, "Greater 
Chronicle"]. Adapted from translation by J. A. Giles (London, 
1852), Vol. I., pp. 157-158, 166-167, 169-170; Vol. II., pp. 84-85, 
103. 

In the course of the same year [1238] the fame of the Emperor 
Frederick was clouded and marred by his jealous enemies and 
rivals; for it was imputed to him that he was wavering in the 
Catholic faith, or wandering from the right way, and had given 
Frederick utterance to some speeches, from which it could 

suspected be inferred and suspected that he was not only 

of llGrGSV 

weak in the Catholic faith, but — what was a 
much greater and more serious crime — that there was in him an 
enormity of heresy, and the most dreadful blasphemy, to be de- 
tested and execrated by all Christians. For it was reported that 
the Emperor Frederick had said (although it may not be proper 
to mention it) that three imposters had so craftily deceived their 
contemporaries as to gain for themselves the mastery of the 
world: these were Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet [Mohammed]; and 
that he had impiously given expression to some wicked and in- 
credible ravings and blasphemies respecting the most holy 
Eucharist. Far be it from any discreet man, much less a Chris- 
tian, to employ his tongue in such raving blasphemy. It was 
also said by his rivals that the Emperor agreed with and believed in 
the law of Mahomet more than that of Jesus Christ. A rumor 
Accusation also crept amongst the people (which God forbid 

lations^wKh^' ^^^ ^^ ^^^® ^^ ^^^^ ^ great prince) that he had 
the Saracens been for a long time past in alliance with the 
Saracens, and was more friendly to them than to the Christians; 
and his rivals, who were endeavoring to blacken his fame, at- 
tempted to establish this by many proofs. Whether they sinned 
or not, He alone knows who is ignorant of nothing. . . . 

In Lent, of the same year [1239], seeing the rash proceed- 
ings of the Emperor, and that his words pleaded excuse for his 
sins, — namely, that by the assistance of some of the nobles 
and judges of Sardinia he had taken into his own possession, 



406 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

and still held, the land and castles of the bishop of Sardinia, and 

constantly declared that they were a portion of the Empire, and 

that he by his first and chief oath would preserve 
Prfid-Grick' s 
seizure of the the rights of the Empire to the utmost of his 

lands belong- power, and would also sollect the scattered por- 
ing to a bishop \ ' ^ 

tions of it, — the Pope ^ was excited to the most 

violent anger against him. He set forth some very serious com- 
plaints and claims against the Emperor and wrote often boldly and 
carefully to him, advising him repeatedly by many special mes- 
sengers, whose authority ought to have obtained from him the 
greatest attention, to restore the possessions he had seized, and to 
desist from depriving the Church of her possessions, of which she 
was endowed by long prescription. And, like a skilful physician, 
who at one time makes use of medicines, at another of the knife, 
and at another of the cauterizing instrument, he mixed threats 
with entreaties, friendly messages with fearful denunciations. 
As the Emperor, however, scornfully rejected his requests, and 
Refusing to re- excused his actions by arguments founded on 
fs excommuni- ^^ason, his holiness the Pope, on Palm Sunday, 
cated in the presence of a great many of the cardinals, 

in the spirit of glowing anger, solemnly excommunicated the 
said Emperor Frederick, as though he would at once have hurled 
him from his imperial dignity, consigning him with terrible 
denunciations to the possession of Satan at his death; and, as it 
were, thundering forth the fury of his anger, he excited terror in 
all his hearers.^ . . . 

The Emperor, on hearing of this, was inflamed with violent 
anger, and with oft-repeated reproaches accused the Church and 
its rulers of ingratitude to him, and of returning evil for good. 
He recalled to their recollection how he had exposed himself and 
his property to the billows and to a thousand kinds of danger 

1 Gregory IX., (1227-1241). 

2 Frederick was excommunicated and anathematized on sixteen different 
charges, which the Pope carefully enumerated. All who were bound to him 
by oath of fealty were declared to be absolved from their allegiance. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF FREDERICK II. 407 

for the advancement of the Church's welfare and the increase of 
the CathoHc faith, and affirmed that whatever honors the Church 
possessed in the Holy Land had been acquired by his toil and 
Frederick ac- industry. "But," said he, "the Pope, jealous at 
onne-ratitude^ ^^^^ ^ happy increase being acquired for the 
and jealousy Church by a layman, and who desires gold and 
silver rather than an increase of the faith (as witness his proceed- 
ings), and who extorts money from all Christendom in the name 
of tithes, has, by all the means in his power, done his best to 
supplant me, and has endeavored to disinherit me while fighting 
for God, exposing my body to the weapons of war, to sickness, 
and to the snares of his enemies, after encountering the dangers 
of the unsparing billows. See what sort of protection is this of 
our father's! What kind of assistance in difficulties is this 
afforded by the vicar of Jesus Christ "! . . .^ 

" Besides, he is united by a detestable alliance with the Sar- 
acens, — has ofttimes sent messages and presents to them, and 
in turn received the same from them with respect and alacrity 
. . . ; and what is a more execrable offense, he, when formerly 
in tho country beyond sea, made a kind of arrangement, or rather 
collusion, with the sultan, and allowed the name of Mahomet 
to be publicly proclaimed in the temple of the Lord day and 
Further accu- night; and lately, in the case of the sultan of Baby- 
aUiance with ^^^ [Cairo], who, by his own hands, and through his 
the Saracens agents, had done irreparable mischief and injury 
to the Holy Land and its Christian inhabitants, he caused that 
sultan's ambassadors, in compliment to their master, as is re- 
ported, to be honorably received and nobly entertained in his 
kingdom of Sicily. He also, in opposition to the Christians, 
abuses the pernicious and horrid rites of other infidels, and, en- 
tering into an alliance of friendship with those who wickedly 
pay little respect to and despise the Apostolic See, and have 

1 At the Council of Lyons, in 1245, the Emperor was again excommunicated. 
The ensuing paragraph comprises a portion of Pope Innocent IV. 's denun- 
ciation of him upon that occasion. 



408 THE EMPIEE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

seceded from the unity of the Church, he, laying aside all respect 
for the Christian religion, caused, as is positively asserted, the 
duke of Bavaria, of illustrious memory, a special and devoted 
ally of the Roman Church, to be murdered by the assassins. He 
has also given his daughter in marriage to Battacius, an enemy 
of God and the Church, who, together with his aiders, counsel- 
lors, and abettors, was solemnly expelled from the communion 
of the Christians by sentence of excommunication. Rejecting 
the proceedings and customs of Catholic princes, neglecting 
his own salvation and the purity of his fame, he does not employ 
His nefflect of ^^i^^elf in works of piety ; and what is more (to 
pious and char- be silent on his wicked and dissolute practices) , 
although he has learned to practice oppression to 
such a degree, he does not trouble himself to relieve those op- 
pressed by injuries, by extending his hand, as a Christian prince 
ought, to bestow alms, although he has been eagerly aiming at 
the destruction of the churches, and has crushed religious men 
and other ecclesiastical persons with the burden and persecution 
of his yoke. And it is not known that he ever built or founded 
either churches, monasteries, hospitals, or other pious places. 
Now these are not light, but convincing, grounds for suspicions 
of heresy being entertained against him." . . . 

When the Emperor Frederick was made fully aware of all 
these proceedings [i.e., his excommunication at Lyons] he could 
not contain himself, but burst into a violent rage and, darting a 
scowling look on those who sat around him, he thundered forth : 
"The Pope in his synod has disgraced me by depriving me of 
my crown. Whence arises such great audacity? Whence pro- 
ceeds such rash presumption? Where are my chests which 
Frederick's contain my treasures?" And on their being 
^communi- brought and unlocked before him, by his order, 
cation he said, "See if my crowns are lost now;" then 

finding one, he placed it on his head and, being thus crowned, 
he stood up, and, with threatening eyes and a dreadful voice, un- 



THE GOLDEN BULL OF CHARLES IV. 409 

restrainable from passion, he said aloud, "I have not yet lost my 
crown, nor will I be deprived of it by any attacks of the Pope 
or the council, without a bloody struggle. Does his vulgar pride 
raise him to such heights as to enable him to hurl from the 
imperial dignity me, the chief prince of the world, than whom 
none is greater — yea, who am without an equal? In this matter 
my condition is made better: in some things I was bound to 
obey, at least to respect, him; but now I am released from all 
ties of affection and veneration, and also from the obligation of 
any kind of peace with him." From that time forth, therefore, 
he, in order to injure the Pope more effectually and perseveringly, 
did all kinds of harm to his Holiness, in his money, as well as in 
his friends and relatives. 

72. The Golden Bull of Charles IV. (1356) 

The century following the death of Frederick II. (1250) was a period 
of unrest and turbulence in German history, the net result of which 
politically was the almost complete triumph of the princes, lay and cleri- 
cal, over the imperial power. By 1350 the local magnates had come to 
be virtually sovereign throughout their own territories. They enjoyed 
the right of legislation and the privileges of coining money and levying 
taxes, and in many cases they had scarcely so much as a feudal bond to 
remind them of their theoretical allegiance to the Empire. The one prin- 
ciple of action upon which they could agree was that the central mon- 
archy should be kept permanently in the state of helplessness to which 
it had been reduced. The power of choosing a successor when a vacancy 
arose in the imperial office had fallen gradually into the hands of seven 
men, who were known as the "electors" and who were recognized in the 
fourteenth century as possessing collective importance far greater than 
that of the emperor. Three of these seven — the archbishops of Mainz, 
Trier, and Cologne — were great ecclesiastics; the other four — the king 
of Bohemia, the margrave of Brandenburg, the duke of Saxony, and the 
count palatine of the Rhine — were equally influential laymen. This 
electoral college first came into prominence at the election of Rudolph I. 
(of the House of Hapsburg) at the end of the Interregnum in 1273. 



410 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

From that time until the termination of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 
these seven men (eight after 1648 and nine after 1692) played a part in 
German history not inferior to that of the emperors. They imposed 
upon their candidates such conditions as they chose, and when the bearer 
of the imperial title grew restive and difficult to control they did not 
hesitate to make war upon him, or even in extreme cases to depose him. 
It has been well said that never in all history have worse scandals been 
connected with any sort of elections than were associated repeatedly 
•with the actions of these German electors. 

The central document in German constitutional history in the Middle 
Ages is the Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV. (1347-1378), promiilgated 
in 1356. For a century prior to the reign of Charles the question of the 
imperial succession had been one of extreme perplexity. The electoral 
college had grown up to assume the responsibility, but this body rested 
on no solid legal basis and its acts were usually regarded as null by all 
whom they displeased, with the result that a civil war succeeded pretty 
nearly every election. Charles was shrewd enough to see that the exist- 
ing system could not be set aside ; the electors were entirely too power- 
ful to permit of that. But he also saw that it might at least be im- 
proved by giving it the quality of legality which it had hitherto lacked. 
The result of his efforts in this direction was the Golden Bull, issued and 
confirmed at the diets of Niirnberg (Nuremberg) and Metz in 1356. 
The document, thenceforth regarded as the fundamental law of the 
Empire, dealt with a wide variety of subjects. It confirmed the elector- 
ship in the person of the king of Bohemia which had long been disputed 
by a rival branch of the family ; ^ it made elaborate provision for the elec- 
tion of the emperor by the seven magnates; it defined the social and 
political prerogatives of these men and prescribed the relations which 
they should bear to their subjects, to other princes, and to the emperor; 
and it made numerous regulations regarding conspiracies, coinage, im- 
munities, the forfeiture of fiefs, the succession of electoral princes, etc. 
In a word, as Mr. Bryce has put it, the document "confessed and legal- 
ized the independence of the Electors and the powerlessness of the 
crown." ^ Only a few selections from it can be given here, particularly 
those bearing on the methods of electing the emperor. 

1 Charles IV. was himself king of Bohemia, so that for the present the 
Emperor was also one of the seven imperial electors. 

2 James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed., New York, 1904), p. 234. 



THE GOLDEN BULL OF CHARLES IV. 411 

Source — ^Text in Wilhelm Altmann und Ernst Bernheim, Ausgeivdhlte 
Urkunden ziir Krlduterung der Verfas.mngsgeschichte Deutschlands 
im Mittelditer ["'Select Documents Illustrative of the Constitu- 
tional History of Germany in the Middle Ages"], 3rd ed., Berlin, 
1904, pp. 54-83. Adapted from translation in Oliver J. Thatcher 
and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Mediceval History (New 
York, 1905), pp. 284-295 passim. 

1. 1. We decree and determine by this imperial edict that, 
whenever the electoral princes are summoned according to the 
ancient and praiseworthy custom to meet and elect a king of 
the Romans and future emperor, each one of them shall be bound 
Guarantee to furnish on demand an escort and safe-conduct 
trav^ffor°the ^^ ^^^ fellow electors or their representatives, 
electors within his own lands and as much farther as he 
can, for the journey to and from the city where the election is 
to be held. Any electoral prince who refuses to furnish escort 
and safe-conduct shall be liable to the penalties for perjury and 
to the loss of his electoral vote for that occasion. 

2. We decree and command also that all other princes who 
hold fiefs from the Empire, by whatever title, and all counts, 
barons, knights, clients, nobles, commoners, citizens, and all 
corporations of towns, cities, and territories of the Empire, shall 
furnish escort and safe-conduct for this occasion to every elec- 
toral prince or his representatives, on demand, within their own 
lands and as much farther as they can. Violators of this decree 
shall be punished as follows: princes, counts, barons, knights, 
Penalties for clients, and all others of noble rank, shall suffer 
safe^conxiuct 0^ ^^® penalties of perjury, and shall lose the fiefs 
the electors which they hold of the emperor or any other lord, 
and all their possessions; citizens and corporations shall also 
suffer the penalty for perjury, shall be deprived of all the rights, 
liberties, privileges, and graces which they have received from 
the Empire, and shall incur the ban of the Empire against their 
persons and property. Those whom we deprive of their rights 
for this offense may be attacked by any man without appealing 
to a magistrate, and without danger of reprisal; for they are rebels 



412 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

against the state and the Empire, and have attacked the honor 
and security of the prince, and are convicted of faithlessness and 
perfidy. 

3. We also command that the citizens and corporations of 
cities shall furnish supplies to the electoral princes and their 
„ ,. „ representatives on demand at the regular price and 

the use of the without fraud, whenever they arrive at, or depart 

6l6CtjOTS 

from, the city on their way to or from the elec- 
tion. Those who violate this decree shall suffer the penalties 
described in the preceding paragraph for citizens and corpora- 
tions. If any prince, count, baron, knight, client, noble, com- 
moner, citizen, or city shall attack or molest in person or goods 
any of the electoral princes or their representatives, on their way 
to or from an election, whether they have safe-conduct or not, 
he and his accomplices shall incur the penalties above described, 
according to his position and rank. 

16. When the news of the death of the king of the Romans 

has been received at Mainz, within one month from the date of 

The electors receiving it the archbishop of Mainz shall send 

to be sum- notices of the death and the approaching election 

moned by the t-> i- i 

archbishop to all the electoral princes. But if the arch- 

ainz bishop neglects or refuses to send such notices, 

the electoral princes are commanded on their fidelity to as- 
semble on their own motion and without summons at the city 
of Frankfort,^ within three months from the death of the em- 
peror, for the purpose of electing a king of the Romans and 
future emperor, 

17. Each electoral prince or his representatives may bring 
with him to Frankfort at the time of the election a retinue of 
200 horsemen, of whom not more than 50 shall be armed. 



1 Frankfort lay on the river Main, a short distance east of Mainz. "It 
was fixed as the place of election, as a tradition dating from East Frankish 
days preserved the feeling that both election and coronation ought to take 
place on Frankish soil." — James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (newed., 
New York, 1904), p. 243. 



THE GOLDEN BULL OF CHARLES IV. 413 

18. If any electoral prince, duly summoned to the election, 
fails to come, or to send representatives with credentials con- 
How a vote taining full authority, or if he (or his representa- 
might be for- tives) withdraws from the place of the election 
before the election has been completed, without 
leaving behind substitutes fully accredited and empowered, he 
shall lose his vote in that election. 

II. 2.^ " I, archbishop of Mainz, archchancellor of the Empire 
for Germany,^ electoral prince, swear on the holy gospels here 
before me, and by the faith which I owe to God and to the Holy 
The oath taken Roman Empire, that with the aid of God, and 
by the electors according to my best judgment and knowledge, 
I will cast my vote, in this election of the king of the Romans 
and future emperor, for a person fitted to rule the Christian 
people. I will give my voice and vote freely, uninfluenced by 
any agreement, price, bribe, promise, or anything of the sort, 
by whatever name it may be called. So help me God and all 
the saints." 

3. After the electors have taken this oath, they shall proceed 
to the election, and shall not depart from Frankfort until the 
p . . majority have elected a king of the Romans and 

to ensure future emperor, to be ruler of the world and of 

the Christian people. If they have not come to a 
decision within thirty days from the day on which they took 
the above oath, after that they shall live upon bread and water 
and shall not leave the city until the election has been decided. 

III. 1. To prevent any dispute arising between the arch- 
bishops of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne, electoral princes of the 



1 The preceding section specifies that Mass should be celebrated the day 
following the arrival of the electors at Frankfort, and that the archbishop 
of Mainz should administer to his six colleagues the oath which he himself 
has taken, as specified in section 2. 

2 The three archbishops were " archchancellors " of the Empire for Ger- 
many, Gaul and Burgundy, and Italy respectively. The king of Bohemia 
was designated as cupbearer, the margrave of Brandenburg as chamberlain, 
the count palatine as seneschal, and the duke of Saxony as marshal. 



414 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

Empire, as to their priority and rank in the diet/ it has been de- 
cided and is hereby decreed, with the advice and consent of all 
the electoral princes, ecclesiastical and secular, that the arch- 
bishop of Trier shall have the seat directly opposite and facing the 
Order of prece- emperor; that the archbishop of Mainz shall have 
three^^ch-^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ right of the emperor when the diet 
bishops is held in the diocese or province of Mainz, or 

anywhere in Germany except in the diocese of Cologne; that the 
archbishop of Cologne shall have the seat at the right of the 
emperor when the diet is held in the diocese or province of 
Cologne, or anywhere in Gaul or Italy. This applies to all public 
ceremonies — court sessions, conferring of fiefs, banquets, coun- 
cils, and all occasions on which the princes meet with the em- 
peror for the transaction of imperial business. This order of 
seating shall be observed by the successors of the present arch- 
bishops of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz, and shall never be ques- 
tioned. 

IV. 1. In the imperial diet, at the council-board, table, and 
all other places where the emperor or king of the Romans meets 
with the electoral princes, the seats shall be arranged as follows: 
g . On the right of the emperor, first, the archbishop 

arrangement of Mainz, or of Cologne, according to the province 
in which the meeting is held, as arranged above; 
second, the king of Bohemia, because he is a crowned and 
anointed prince; third, the count palatine of the Rhine; on the 
left of the emperor, first, the archbishop of Cologne, or of Mainz; 
second, the duke of Saxony; third, the margrave of Branden- 
burg. 

2. When the imperial throne becomes vacant, the archbishop 

of Mainz shall have the authority, which he has had from of old, 

to call the other electors together for the election. It shall be 

his peculiar right also, when the electors have convened for the 

1 The diet was the Empire's nearest approach to a national assembly. It 
was made up of three orders — the electors, the princes, and the representa- 
tives of the cities. 



THE GOLDEN BULL OF CHAKLES IV. 415 

election, to collect the votes, asking each of the electors sepa- 
rately in the following order: first, the archbishop of Trier, who 
shall have the right to the first vote, as he has had from of old; 
The order then the archbishop of Cologne, who has the office 

of voting q£ f^j.g^ placing the crown upon the head of the 

king of the Romans; then the king of Bohemia, who has the prior- 
ity among the secular princes because of his royal title; fourth, 
the count palatine of the Rhine; fifth, the duke of Saxony; 
sixth, the margrave of Brandenburg. Then the princes shall ask 
the archbishop of Mainz in turn to declare his choice and vote. 
At the diet, the margrave of Brandenburg shall offer water to 
.the emperor or king, to wash his hands; the king of Bohemia 
shall have the right to offer him the cup first, although, by rea- 
son of his royal dignity, he shall not be bound to do this unless 
he desires; the count palatine of the Rhine shall offer him food; 
and the duke of Saxony shall act as his marshal in the accustomed 
manner. 

XL 1. We decree also that no count, baron, noble, vassal, 
burggrave,^ knight, client, citizen, burgher, or other subject of 
the churches of Cologne, Mainz, or Trier, of whatever status, 
condition, or rank, shall be cited, haled, or summoned to any 
authority before any tribunal outside of the territories, bound- 
aries, and limits of these churches and their dependencies, or 
before any judge, except the archbishop and their judges. . . . 
We refuse to hear appeals based upon the authority of others 
Judicial over the subjects of these princes; if these princes 

privileges of ^j-e accused by their subjects of injustice, ap- 
confirmed and peal shall lie to the imperial diet, and shall be 
^® heard there and nowhere else. 

2. We extend this right by the present law to the secular 
electoral princes, the count palatine of the Rhine, the duke of 
Saxony, and the margrave of Brandenburg, and to their heirs, 
successors, and subjects forever. 

1 An official representative of a king or overlord in a city. 



416 THE EMPIRE IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

XII. 1. It has been decided in the general diet held at Niirn- 
berg ^ with the electoral princes, ecclesiastical and secular, and 
other princes and magnates, by their advice and with their con- 
sent, that in the future, the electoral princes shall meet every 
The electors to year in some city of the Empire four weeks after 
meet annuaUy Easter. This year they are to meet at that date 
in the imperial city of Metz.^ On that occasion, and on every 
meeting thereafter, the place of assembling for the following 
year shall be fixed by us, with the advice and consent of the 
princes. This ordinance shall remain in force as long as it shall 
be pleasing to us and to the princes; and as long as it is in effect, 
we shall furnish the princes with safe-conduct for that assembly, 
going, staying, and returning. 

1 Niirnberg (or Nuremberg) is situated in Bavaria, in south central Ger- 
many. 

2 Metz lay on the Moselle, above Trier. Apparently this clause providing 
for a regular annual meeting of the electors was inserted by Charles in the 
hope that he might be able to make use of the body as an advisory council in 
the affairs of the Empire. The provision remained a dead letter, for the rea- 
son that the electors were indifferent to the Emperor's purposes in the matter. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

Our chief contemporary source of information on the history of the 
Hundred Years' War is Jean Froissart's Chronicles of England, France, 
and the Adjoining Countries, from the Latter Part of the Reign of Edward II. 
to the Coronation of Henry IV., ^ and it is from this important work that 
all of the extracts (except texts of treaties) which are included in this 
chapter have been selected. Froissart was a French poet and historian, 
born at Beaumont, near Valenciennes in Hainault, in 1337, when the 
Hundred Years' War was just beginning. He lived until the early part 
of the fifteenth century, 1410 being one of the conjectural dates of his 
death. He was a man of keen mental faculties and had enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of an unusually thorough education during boyhood. This 
native ability and training, together with his active public life and ad- 
mirable opportunities for observation, constituted his special qualification 
for the writing of a history of his times. Froissart represents a type of 
mediseval chronicler which was quite rare, in that he was not a monk 
living in seclusion but a practical man of affairs, accustomed to travel 
and intercourse with leading men in all the important countries of west- 
ern Europe. He lived for five years at the English court as clerk of the 
Queen's Chamber; many times he was sent by the French king on diplo- 
matic missions to Scotland, Italy, and other countries; and he made 
several private trips to various parts of Europe for the sole purpose of 
acquiring information. Always and everywhere he was observant and 
quick to take advantage of opportunities to ascertain facts which he 
could use, and we are told that after it came to be generally known that he 
was preparing to write an extended history of his times not a few kings 
and princes took pains to send him details regarding events which they 
desired to have recorded. The writing of the Chronicles was a life work. 

1 This is the title employed by Thomas Johnes in his translation of the 
work a hundred years ago. Froissart himself called his book, in the French 
of his day, Chroniques de France, d'Engleterre, d'Escoce, de Bretaigne, d'Es- 
paigne. d'ltalie, de Flandres et d'Alemaigne. 

Med. Hist.— 27 417 



418 THE HUNDKED YEARS' WAR 

When only twenty years of age Froissart submitted to Isabella, wife of 
King Edward III. of England, an account of the battle of Poitiers, in 
which the queen's son, the famous Black Prince, had won distinction in 
the previous year. Thereafter the larger history was published book by 
book, until by 1373 it was complete to date. Subsequently it was ex- 
tended to the year 1400 (it had begun with the events of 1326), while 
the earlier portions were rewritten and considerably revised. And, in- 
deed, when death came to the author he was still working at his arduous 
but congenial task. "As long as I live,'' he wrote upon one occasion, 
"by the grace of God I shall continue it; for the more I follow it and 
labor thereon, the more it pleases me. Even as a gentle knight or es- 
quire who loves arms, while persevering and continuing develops him- 
self therein, thus do I, laboring and striving with this matter, improve 
and delight myself." 

The Chronicles as they have come down to us are written in a lively 
and pleasing style. It need hardly be said that they are not wholly 
accurate; indeed, on the whole, they are quite inaccurate, measured even 
by mediaeval standards. Froissart was obliged to rely for a large portion 
of his information upon older chronicles and especially upon conversa- 
tions and interviews with people in various parts of Europe. Such 
sources are never wholly trustworthy and it must be admitted that our 
author was not as careful to sift error from truth as he should have 
been. His credulity betrayed him often into accepting what a little 
investigation would have shown to be false, and only very rarely did he 
make any attempt, as a modern historian would do, to increase and 
verify his knowledge by a study of documents. Still, the Chronicles 
constitute an invaluable history of the period they cover. The facts 
they record, the events they explain, the vivid descriptions they con- 
tain, and the side-lights they throw upon the life and manners of an 
interesting age unite to give them a place of peculiar importance among 
works of their kind. And, wholly aside from their historical value, they 
constitute one of the monuments of mediaeval French literature. 



73. An Occasion of War between the Kings of England and France 

The causes, general and specific, of the Hundred Years' War were 
numerous. The most important were : (1) The long-standing bad feeling 



THE DISPUTED SUCCESSION IN FKANCE 419 

between the French and English regarding the possession of Normandy 
and Guienne. England had lost the former to France and she had never 
ceased to hope for its recovery; on the other hand, the French were 
resolved upon the eventual conquest of the remaining English conti- 
nental possession of Guienne and were constantly asserting themselves 
there in a fashion highly irritating to the English; (2) the assistance and 
general encouragement given the rebellious Scots by the French; (3) 
the pressure brought to bear upon the English crown by the popular 
I^arty in Flanders to claim the French throne and to resort to war to 
obtain it. The Flemish wool trade was a very important item in Eng- 
land's economic prosperity and it was felt to be essential at all hazards 
to prevent the extension of French influence in Flanders, which would 
inevitably mean the checking, if not the ruin, of the commercial relations 
of the Flemish and the English ; and (4) the claim to the throne of France 
which Edward III., king of England, set up and prepared to defend. It 
is this last occasion of war that Froissart describes in the passage below. 

Source — ^Text in Simeon Luce (ed.), Chroniques de Jean Froissart [published 
for the Societe de I'Histoire de France], Paris, 1869, Chap. I. 
Translated in Thomas Johnes, Froissart's Chronicles (London, 
1803), Vol. I., pp. 6-7. 

History tells us that Philip, king of France, surnamed the 
Fair,^ had three sons, besides his beautiful daughter Isabella, 
married to the king of England.^ These three sons were very 
handsome. The eldest, Louis, king of Navarre, during the life- 
time of his father, was called Louis Hutin; the second was named 
Philip the Great, or the Long; and the third, Charles. All these 
were kings of France, after their father Philip, by legitimate 
succession, one after the other, without having by marriage any 
male heirs. ^ Yet on the death of the last king, Charles, the 
twelve peers and barons of France •* did not give the kingdom 

1 Philip IV., king of France, 128.5-1314. 

2 Isabella was the wife of Edward II., who reigned in England from 1307 
until his deposition in 1327. 

^ Louis X. (the Quarrelsome) reigned 1314-1316; Philip V. (the Long), 
1316-1322; and Charles IV. (the Fair), 1322-1328. Louis and Charles were 
very weak kings, though Philip was vigorous and able. 

^ The French Court of Twelve Peers did not constitute a distinct organiza- 
tion, but was merely a high rank of baronage. In the earlier Middle Ages, 



420 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

to Isabella, the sister, who was queen of England, because they 

said and maintained, and still insist, that the kingdom of 

_, . France is so noble that it ought not to go to a 

The succession ^ ° 

to the French woman; consequently neither to Isabella nor to 
her son, the king of England; for they held that 
the son of a woman cannot claim any right of succession where 
that woman has none herself.^ For these reasons the twelve 
peers and barons of France unanimously gave the kingdom of 
France to the lord Philip of Valois, nephew of King Philip,^ and 
thus put aside the queen of England (who was sister to Charles, 
the late king of France) and her son. Thus, as it seemed to 
many people, the succession went out of the right line, which has 
been the occasion of the most destructive wars and devastations 
of countries, as well in France as elsewhere, as you will learn 



the number of peers was generally twelve, including the most powerful lay 
vassals of the king and certain influential prelates. In later times the num- 
ber was frequently increased by the creation of peers by the crown. 

1 In 1317, after the accession of Philip IV., an assembly of French mag- 
nates (such as that which disposed of the crown in 1328) laid down the 
general rule that no woman should succeed to the throne of France. This 
rule has come to be known as the Salic Law of France, though it has no 
historical connection with the law of the Salian Franks against female in- 
heritance of property, with which older writers have generally confused it 
[see p. 67, note 1]. The rule of 1317 was based purely on grounds of political 
expediency. It was announced at this particular time because the death of 
Louis X. had left France without a male heir to the throne for the first time 
since Hugh Capet's day and the barons thought it not best for the realm that 
a woman reign over it. Between 1316 and 1328 daughters of kings were 
excluded from the succession three times, and though in 1328, when Charles 
IV. died, there had been no farther legislation on the subject, the principle of 
the misnamed Salic Law had become firmly established in practice. In 
1328, however, when the barons selected Philip of Valois to be regent first 
and then king, they went a step farther and declared not only that no 
woman should be allowed to inherit the throne of France but that the in- 
heritance could not pass through a woman to her son; in other words, she 
could not transmit to her descendants a right which she did not herself 
possess. This was intended to cover any future case such as that of Edward 
III.'s claim to inherit through his mother Isabella, daughter of Phihp IV. 
The action of the barons was supported by public opinion in practically all 
France — especially since it appeared that only through this expedient could 
the realm be saved from the domination of an alien sovereign. 

2 Philip of Valois was a son of Charles of Valois, who was a brother of 
Philip IV. The line of direct Capetian descent was now replaced by the 
branch line of the Valois. The latter occupied the French throne until the 
death of Henry III. in 1589. 



EDWARD III. ASSUMES THE TITLE " KING OF FRANCE " 421 

hereafter; the real object of this history being to relate the great 
enterprises and deeds of arms achieved in these wars, for from 
the time of good Charlemagne, king of France, never were such 
feats performed. 

74. Edward III. Assumes the Arms and Title of the King of France 

Due to causes which have been mentioned, the relations of England 
and France at the accession of Philip VI. in 1328 were so strained that 
only a slight fanning of the flames was necessary to bring on an open 
conflict. Edward III.'s persistent demand to be recognized as king of 
France sufficed to accomplish this result. The war did not come at once, 
for neither king felt himself ready for it ; but it was inevitable and prepa- 
rations for it were steadily pushed on both sides from 1328 until its for- 
mal declaration by Edward nine years later. These preparations were 
not merely military and naval but also diplomatic. The primary object 
of both sovereigns was to secure as many and as strong foreign alliances 
as possible. In pursuit of this policy Philip soon assured himself of the 
support of Louis de Nevers, count of Flanders, King John of Bohemia, 
Alphonso XI. of Castile, and a number of lesser princes of the north. 
Edward was even more successful. In Spain and the Scandinavian 
countries many local powers allied themselves with him; in the Low 
Countries, especially Flanders and Brabant, the people and the princes 
chose generally to identify themselves with his cause; and the chmax 
came in July, 1337, when a treaty of alliance was concluded with the Em- 
peror, Louis of Bavaria. War was begun in this same year, and in 1338 
Edward went himself to the continent to undertake a direct attack on _ 
France from Flanders as a base. The years 1338 and 1339 were con- 
sumed -with ineffective operations against the walled cities of the French 
frontier, Philip steadily refusing to be drawn into an open battle such 
as Edward desired. The following year the English king resolved to 
declare himself sovereign of France. The circumstances attending this 
important step are detailed in the passage from Froissart given below. 

Heretofore Edward had merely protested that by reason of his being a 
grandson of Phihp the Fair he should have been awarded the throne by 
the French barons in 1328; now, at the instigation of his German and 
Flemish allies, he flatly announces that he is of right the king and 



422 THE HUNDRED YEARS ' WAR 

that Philip VI. is to be deposed as an usurper. Of course this was a dec- 
laration which Edwa;rd could make good only by victory in the war upon 
which he. had entered. But the claim thus set up rendered it inevitable 
that the war should be waged to the bitter end on both sides. 

Source — Chroniques de Jean Froissart (Society de I'Histoire de France 
edition) , Chap. XXXI. Translated in Thomas Johnes, Froissart's 
Chronicles, Vol. I., pp. 110-112. 

When King Edward had departed from Flanders and arrived 
at Brabant he set out straight for Brussels, whither he was at- 
tended by the duke of Gueldres, the duke of Juliers, the marquis 
of Blanckenburg, the earl of Mons, the lord John of Hainault, the 
The conference loi'd of Fauquemont, and all the barons of the 
at Brussels Empire who were allied to him, as they wished 

to consider what was next to be done in this war which they had 
begun. For greater expedition, they ordered a conference to be 
held in the city of Brussels, and invited James van Arteveld ^ to 
attend it, who came thither in great array, and brought with 
him all the councils from the principal towns of Flanders. 

At this parliament the king of England was advised by his 
allies of the Empire to solicit the Flemings to give him their aid 
and assistance in this war, to challenge the king of France, and 
to follow King Edward wherever he should lead them, and in 
return he would assist them in the recovery of Lisle, Douay, and 
Bethune.^ The Flemings heard this proposal with pleasure; 
but they requested of the king that they might consider it among 
themselves and in a short time they would give their answer. 

The king consented and soon after they made this reply: 

1 James van Arteveld, a brewer of Ghent, was the leader of the popular 
party in Flanders — the party which hated French influence, which had 
expelled the count of Flanders on account of his services to Philip VI., and 
which was the most valuable English ally on the continent. Arteveld was 
murdered in 1345 during the civil discord which prevailed in Flanders 
throughout the earlier part of the Hundred Years' War. 

2 These were towns situated near the Franco-Flemish frontier. They had 
been lost by Flanders to France and assistance in their recovery was rightly 
considered by the German advisers of Edward as likely to be more tempting 
to the Flemish than any other offer he could make them. 



EDWARD III. ASSUMES THE TITLE " KING OF FRANCE " 423 

"Beloved sire, you formerly made us a similar request; and we 
are willing to do everything in reason for you without prejudice 
to our honor and faith. But we are pledged by promise on oath, 
under a penalty of two millions of florins, to the apostolical 
Proposition chamber,^ not to act offensively against the king 
Flemings to^ °^ France in any way, whoever he may be, with- 
King Edward out forfeiting this sum, and incurring the sentence 
of excommunication. But if you will do what we will tell you, 
you will find a remedy, which is, that you take the arms of 
France, quarter them with those of England, and call yourself 
king of France. We will acknowledge your title as good, and 
we will demand of you quittance for the above sum, which you 
will grant us as king of France. Thus we shall be absolved and 
at liberty to go with you wherever it pleases you." 

The king summoned his council, for he was loath to take the 
title and arms of France, seeing that at present he had not con- 
quered any part of that kingdom and that it was uncertain whether 
he ever should. On the other hand, he was unwilling to lose the 
aid and assistance of the Flemings, who could be of greater 
service to him than any others at that period. He consulted, 
therefore, with the lords of the Empire, the lord Robert d'Artois,^ 
and his most privy councilors, who, after having duly weighed 
the good and bad, advised him to make for answer to the Flem- 
The agreement ings, that if they would bind themselves under 
concluded their seals, to an agreement to aid him in carry- 

ing on the war, he would willingly comply with their conditions, 
and would swear to assist them in the recovery of Lisle, Douay, 
and Bethune. To this they willingly consented. A day was 
fixed for them to meet at Ghent,^ where the king and the greater 

1 That is, the papal court. 

2 Robert of Artois was a prince who had not a little to do with the outbreak 
of the Hundred Years' War. After having lost a suit for the inheritance of 
the county of Artois (the region about the Somme River) and having been 
proved guilty of fabricating documents to support his claims, he had fled 
to England and there as an exile had employed every resource to influence 
Edward to claim the French throne and to go to war to secure it. 

^ In northeastern Flanders, 



424 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

part of the lords of the Empire, and in general the councils from 
the different towns in Flanders, assembled. The above-men- 
tioned proposals and answers were then repeated, sworn to, and 
sealed; and the king of England bore the arms of France, quar- 
tering them with those of England. He also took the title of 
king of France from that day forward. 

75. The Naval Battle of Sluys (1340) 

In the spring of 1340 Edward returned to England to secure money 
and supplies with which to prosecute the war. The French king thought 
he saw in this temporary withdrawal of his enemy an opportunity to 
strike him a deadly blow. A fleet of nearly two hundred vessels was 
gathered in the harbor of Sluys, on the Flemish coast, with a view to 
attacking the English king on his return to the continent and preventing 
him from again securing a foothold in Flanders. Edward, however, 
accepted the situation and made ready to fight his way back to the coun- 
try of his allies. June 24, 1340, he boldly attacked the French at Sluys. 
The sharp conflict which ensued resulted in a brilliant victory for the 
English. Philip's fleet found itself shut up in the harbor and utterly 
unable to withstand the showers of arrows shot by the thousands of 
archers who crowded the English ships. The French navy was annihi- 
lated, England was relieved from the fear of invasion, and the whole 
French coast was laid open to attack. 

Source — Chroniques de Jean Froissart (Soci^te de THistoire de France 
edition) , Chap. XXXVII. Translated in Thomas Johnes, Froissart's 
Chronicles, Vol. I., pp. 141-143. 

He [King Edward] and his whole navy sailed from the Thames 
the day before the eve of St. John the Baptist, 1340,^ and made 
straight for Sluys. 

Sir Hugh Quiriel, Sir Peter Bahucet, and Barbenoir, were at 

that time lying between Blankenburg and Sluys with upwards 

of one hundred and twenty large vessels, without counting 

others. These were manned with about forty thousand men, 

1 That is, June 23. The English fleet was composed of two hundred and 
fifty vessels, carrying 11,000 archers and 4,000 men-at-arms. 



THE NAVAL BATTLE OF SLUYS 425 

Genoese and Picards, including mariners. By the orders of the 
king of France, they were there at anchor, awaiting the return 
of the king of England, to dispute his passage. 

When the king's fleet had almost reached Sluys, they saw so 
many masts standing before it that they looked like a wood. 
The king asked the commander of his ship what they could be. 
The latter replied that he imagined they must be that armament 
of Normans which the king of France kept at sea, and which 
had so frequently done him much damage, had burned his good 
Ed d d t town of Southampton and taken his large ship 
mines to fight the Christopher. The king replied, " I. have for 
a long time desired to meet them, and now, 
please God and St. George, we will fight with them; for, in 
truth, they have done me so much mischief that I will be re- 
venged on them if it be possible." 

The king then drew up all his vessels, placing the strongest 
in front, and his archers on the wings. Between every two 
vessels with archers there was one of men-at-arms. He stationed 
some detached vessels as a reserve, full of archers, to assist and 
help such as might be damaged. There were in this fleet a great 
many ladies from England, countesses, baronesses, and knights' 
and gentlemen's wives, who were going to attend on the queen 
at Ghent. -^ These the king had guarded most carefully by three 
hundred men-at-arms and five hundred archers. 

When the king of England and his marshals had properly 
divided the fleet, they hoisted their sails to have the wind on 
their quarter, as the sun shone full in their faces (which they 
considered might be of disadvantage to them) and stretched out 
a little, so that at last they got the wind as they wished. The 
Normans, who saw them tack, could not help wondering why they 
The French did so, and remarked that they took good care to 
make ready turn about because they were afraid of meddling 
with them. They perceived, however, by his banner, that the king 

1 Edward III.'s queen was Philippa, daughter of the count of Hainault. 



426 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

was on board, which gave them great joy, as they were eager to 
fight with him. So they put their vessels in proper order, for 
they were expert and gallant men on the seas. They filled the 
Christopher, the large ship which they had taken the year before 
from the English, with trumpets and other warlike instruments, 
and ordered her to fall upon the English. 

The battle then began very fiercely. Archers and cross- 
bowmen shot with all their might at each other, and the men-at- 
arms engaged hand to hand. In order to be more successful, 
they had large grapnels and iron hooks with chains, which they 
flung from ship to ship to moor them to each other. There were 
many valiant deeds performed, many prisoners made, and many 
rescues. The Christopher, which led the van, was recaptured 
The battle by the English, and all in her taken or killed, 

rages There were then great shouts and cries, and the 

English manned her again with archers, and sent her to fight 
against the Genoese. 

This battle was very murderous and horrible. Combats at 
sea are more destructive and obstinate than upon land, for it is 
not possible to retreat or flee — every one must abide his fortune, 
and exert his prowess and valor. Sir Hugh Quiriel and his com- 
panions were bold and determined men; they had done much 
mischief to the English at sea and destroyed many of their ships. 
The combat, therefore, lasted from early in the morning until 
noon,^ and the English were hard pressed, for their enemies were 
four to one, and the greater part men who had been used to the 
sea. 

The king, who was in the flower of his youth, showed himself 
on that day a gallant knight, as did the earls^ of Derby, Pem- 
broke, Hereford, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Gloucester; 
the lord Reginald Cobham, lord Felton, lord Bradestan, sir 
Richard Stafford, the lord Percy, sir Walter Manny, sir Henry 
de Flanders, sir John Beauchamp, sir John Chandos, the lord 

1 In reality, until five o'clock in the evening, or about nine hours in all. 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY 427 

Delaware, Lucie lord Malton, and the lord Robert d'Artois, 
now called earl of Richmond. I cannot remember the names of 
The English all those who behaved so valiantly in the combat. 
triumph g^^ ^j^^^ ^^-^ ^^ ^^jj ^j^^^^ ^^^.j,^ ^^^^^^ assistance 

from Bruges and those parts of the country, the French were 
completely defeated, and all the Normans and the others were 
killed or drowned, so that not one of them escaped.^ 

After the king had gained this victory, which was on the eve 
of St. John's day,^ he remained all that night on board his 
ship before Sluys, and there were great noises with trumpets and 
all kinds of other instruments. 

76. The Battle of Crecy (1346) 

In July, 1346, Edward III. landed on the northwest coast of Nor- 
mandy with a splendid army of English, Irish, and Welsh, including ten 
thousand men skilled in the use of the long bow. He advanced eastward, 
plundering and devastating as he went, probably with the ultimate in- 
tention of besieging Calais. Finding the passage of the Seine impossible 
at Rouen, he ascended the river until he came into the vicinity of Paris, 
only to learn that Philip with an army twice the size of that of the Eng- 
lish had taken up a position on the Seine to turn back the invasion. 
The French king allowed himself to be outwitted, however, and Edward 
got out of the trap into which he had fallen by marching northward to 
the village of Crecy in Ponthieu. With an army that had grown to out- 
number the English three to one Philip advanced in the path of the 
enemy, fu-st to Abbeville on the Somme, and later to Crecy, slightly to 
the east of which Edward had taken his stand for battle. The English 
arrived at Crecy about noon on Friday, August 25. The French were 
nearly a day behind, having spent the night at Abbeville and set out 
thence over the roads to Crecy before sunrise Saturday morning. The 

1 The tide of battle was finally turned in favor of the English by the arrival 
of reinforcements in the shape of a squadron of Flemish vessels. The con- 
test was not so one-sided or the French defeat so complete as Froissart 
represents, yet it was decisive enough, as is indicated by the fact that only 
thirty of the French ships survived and 20,000 French and Genoese were 
slain or taken prisoners, as against an English loss of about 10,000. 

2 June 24, 1340. 



428 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

army of the English numbered probably about 14,000, besides an uncer- 
tain reserve of Welsh and Irish troops; that of the French numbered 
about 70,000, including 15,000 Genoese cross-bowmen. The course of 
the battle is well described by Froissart in the passage below. Doubtless 
the account is not accurate in every particular, yet it must be correct 
in the main and it shows very vividly the character of French and Eng- 
lish warfare in this period. Despite the superior numbers of the French, 
the English had small difficulty in winning a decisive victory. This was 
due to several things. In the first place, the French army was a typical 
feudal levy and as such was sadly lacking in discipline and order, while 
the English troops were under perfect control. In the next place, the 
use of the long-bow gave the English infantry a great advantage over 
the French knights, and even over the Genoese mercenaries, who could 
shoot just once while an English long-bowman was shooting twelve times. 
In the third place, Philip's troops were exhausted before entering the 
battle and it was a grievous error on the part of the king to allow the 
conflict to begin before his men had an opportunity for rest.^ The great- 
est significance of the English victory lay in the blow it struck at feu- 
dalism, and especially the feudal type of warfare. It showed very clearly 
that the armored knight was no match for the common foot-soldier, armed 
simply with his long-bow, and that feudal methods and ideals had come 
to be inconsistent with success in war. 



Source — Chroniques de Jean Froissart (Soci^t^ de I'Histoire de France 
, edition), Chap. LX. Translated in Thomas Johnes, Froissart's 

Chronicles, Vol. I., pp. 320-329 passim. 

The king of England, as I have mentioned before, encamped 
this Friday in the plain, ^ for he found the country abounding 
in provisions; but if they should have failed, he had an abundance 
in the carriages which attended him. The army set about furbish- 
ing and repairing their armor; and the king gave a supper that 

1 As appears from Froissart's account (see p. 431), the king, on the advice 
of some of his knights, decided at one time to postpone the attack until 
the following day; but, the army falling into liopeless confusion and coming 
up unintentionally within sight of the English, he recklessly gave the order 
to advance to immediate combat. Perhaps, however, it is only fair to place 
the blame upon the system which made the army so unmanageable, rather 
than upon the king personally. 

2 That is, the plain east of the village of Cr^cy. 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY 429 

evening to the earls and barons of his army, where they made 
good cheer. On their taking leave, the king remained alone with 
the lord of his bed-chamber. He retired into his oratory and, 
falling on his knees before the altar, prayed to God, that if he 
should fight his enemies on the morrow he might come off with 
honor. About midnight he went to his bed and, rising early 
the next day, he and the Prince of Wales ^ heard Mass and com- 
municated. The greater part of his army did the same, con- 
fessed, and made proper preparations. 

After Mass the king ordered his men to arm themselves and 
assemble on the ground he had before fixed on. He had en- 
The Enfflish closed a large park near a wood, on the rear of 
prepare for his army, in which he placed all his baggage- 

wagons and horses; and this park had but one 
entrance. His men-at-arms and archers remained on foot. 
The king afterwards ordered, through his constable and his 
two marshals, that the army should be divided into three 
battalions. . . . 

The king then mounted a small palfrey, having a white wand 
in his hand and, attended by his two marshals on each side of 
him, he rode through all the ranks, encouraging and entreating 
the army, that they should guard his honor. He spoke this so 
gently, and with such a cheerful countenance, that all who had 
been dejected were immediately comforted by seeing and hear- 
ing him. 

When he had thus visited all the battalions, it was near ten 
o'clock. He retired to his own division and ordered them all to 
eat heartily afterwards and drink a glass. They ate and drank at 
their ease; and, having packed up pots, barrels, etc., in the carts, 
they returned to their battalions, according to the marshals' 
orders, and seated themselves on the ground, placing their 
helmets and bows before them, that they might be the fresher 
when their enemies should arrive. 

1 The king's eldest son, Edward, generally known as the Black Prince. 



430 THE HUNDRED YEARS ' WAR 

That same Saturday, the king of France arose betimes and 

heard Mass in the monastery of St. Peter's in Abbeville/ where 

he was lodged. Having ordered his army to do the same, he 

left that town after sunrise. When he had marched about two 

leagues from Abbeville and was approaching the enemy, he was 

advised to form his army in order of battle, and to let those on 

foot march forward, that they might not be trampled on by the 

horses. The king, upon this, sent off four knights — the lord 

The French Moyne of Bastleberg, the lord of Noyers, the 

AbVevme%T ^o^^ of Beaujeu, and the lord of Aubigny— who 

Crecy rode so near to the English that they could clearly 

distinguish their position. The English plainly perceived that 

they were come to reconnoitre. However, they took no notice 

of it, but suffered them to return unmolested. When the king 

of France saw them coming back, he halted his army, and the 

knights, pushing through the crowds, came near the king, who 

said to them, "My lords, what news?" They looked at each 

other, without opening their mouths; for no one chose to speak 

first. At last the king addressed himself to the lord Moyne, 

who was attached to the king of Bohemia, and had performed 

very many gallant deeds, so that he was esteemed one of the 

most valiant knights in Christendom. The lord Moyne said, 

"Sir, I will speak, since it pleases you to order me, but with the 

assistance of my companions. We have advanced far enough 

to reconnoitre your enemies. Know, then, that they are drawn 

up in three battalions and are awaiting you. I would advise, 

for my part (submitting, however, to better counsel), that you 

halt your army here and quarter them for the night; for before 

the rear shall come up and the army be properly drawn out, it 

_, ... , will be very late. Your men will be tired and in 

Phihp's -^ 

knights ad- disorder, while they will find your enemies fresh 

and properly arrayed. On the morrow, you may 

draw up your army more at your ease and may reconnoitre at 



Abbeville was on the Somme about fifteen miles south of Cr^cy. 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY 431 

leisure on what part it will be most advantageous to begin the 
attack; for, be assured, they will wait for you." 

The king commanded that it should be so done; and the two 
marshals rode, one towards the front, and the other to the rear, 
crying out, "Halt banners, in the name of God and St. Denis." 
Those that were in the front halted; but those behind said they 
would not halt until they were as far forward as the front. 
When the front perceived the rear pushing on, they pushed for- 
ward; and neither the king nor the marshals could stop them, 

„ „ . . but they marched on without any order until 
Confusion m ■' -^ 

the French they came in sight of their enemies.^ As soon as 

the foremost rank saw them, they fell back at 
once in great disorder, which alarmed those in the rear, who 
thought they had been fighting. There was then space and 
room enough for them to have passed forward, had they been 
willing to do so. Some did so, but others remained behind. 

All the roads between Abbeville and Crecy were covered with 
common people, who, when they had come within three leagues 
of their enemies, drew their swords, crying out, "Kill, kill;" and 
with them were many great lords who were eager to make show 
of their courage. There is no man, unless he .had been present, 
who can imagine, or describe truly, the confusion of that day; 
especially the bad management and disorder of the French, 
whose troops were beyond number. 

The English, who were drawn up in three divisions and seated 

on the ground, on seeing their enemies advance, arose boldly 

mi- t;. 1-1- and fell into their ranks. That of the prince^ 
The Eng-hsh ^ 

prepare for was the first to do so, whose archers were formed 

battle 

in the manner of a portcullis, or harrow, and the 

men-at-arms in the rear. The earls of Northampton and 
Arundel, who commanded the second division, had posted them- 



1 This incident very well illustrates the confusion and lack of discipline 
prevailing in a typical feudal army. 

2 Edward, the Black Prince, eldest son of the English king. 



432 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

selves in good order on his wing to assist and succor the prince, 
if necessary. 

You must know that these kings, dukes, earls, barons, and 
lords of France did not advance in any regular order, but one 
after the other, or in any way most pleasing to themselves. As 
soon as the king of France came in sight of the English his blood 
began to boil, and he cried out to his marshals, "Order the 
Genoese forward, and begin the battle, in the name of God and 
St. Denis." 

There were about fifteen thousand Genoese cross-bowmen; but 
they were quite fatigued, having marched on foot that day six 
leagues, completely armed, and with their cross-bows. They 
told the constable that they were not in a fit condition to do any 
great things that day in battle. The earl of Alengon, hearing this, 
said, "This is what one gets by employing such scoundrels, who 
fail when there is any need for them." 

During this time a heavy rain fell, accompanied by thunder 
and a very terrible eclipse of the sun; and before this rain a 
great flight of crows hovered in the air over all those battalions, 
making a loud noise. Shortly afterwards it cleared up and the 
sun shone very brightly; but the Frenchmen had it in their faces, 
and the English at their backs. 

When the Genoese were somewhat in order they approached 
the English and set up a loud shout in order to frighten them; 
but the latter remained quite still and did not seem to hear it. 
They then set up a second shout and advanced a little forward; 
but the English did not move. They hooted a third time, ad- 
vancing with their cross-bows presented, and began to shoot. 
The English archers then advanced one step forward and shot 
their arrows with such force and quickness that it seemed as 
if it snowed. 

When the Genoese felt these arrows, which pierced their arms, 
heads, and through their armor, some of them cut the strings 
of their cross-bows, others flung them on the ground, and all 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY 433 

turned about and retreated, quite discomfited. The French had 

a large body of men-at-arms on horseback, richly dressed, to 

The Genoese support the Genoese. The king of France, seeing 

mercenaries them thus fah back, cried out, "Kill me those 

scoundrels; for they stop up our road, without' 

any reason." You would then have seen the above-mentioned 

men-at-arms lay about them, killing all that they could of 

these runaways. 

The English continued shooting as vigorously and quickly as 

before. Some of their arrows fell among the horsemen, who 

were sumptuously equipped and, killing and wounding many, 

made them caper and fall among the Genoese, so that they were 

in such confusion they could never rally again. In the English 

army there were some Cornish and Welshmen on foot who had 

Slaughter bv ^^^^^ themselves with large knives. These, ad- 

the Cornish vancing through the ranks of the men-at-arms 
and Welsh , , , , p ^i 

and archers, who made way tor them, came upon 

the French when they were in this danger and, falling upon earls, 
barons, knights and squires, slew many, at which the king of 
England was afterwards much exasperated. 

The valiant king of Bohemia was slain there. He was called 
Charles of Luxemburg, for he was the son of the gallant king 
and emperor, Henry of Luxemburg.^ Having heard the order 
of the battle, he inquired where his son, the lord Charles, was. 
His attendants answered that they did not know, but believed 
that he was fighting. The king said to them: "Sirs, you are 
all my people, my friends and brethren at arms this day; there- 
fore, as I am blind, I request of you to lead me so far into the 
engagement that I may strike one stroke with my sword." The 
D th f th knights replied that they would lead him for- 
king of Bo- ward immediately; and, in order that they might 
not lose him in the crowd, they fastened the reins 
of all their horses together, and put the king at their head, 

iThe Emperor Henry VII., 1308-1314. 
Med. His.— 28 



434 THE HUNDRED YEARS ' WAR 

that he might gratify his wish, and advanced towards the enemy. 
The Idng rode in among the enemy, and made good use of his 
sword; for he and his companions fought most gallantly They 
advanced so far that they were all slain; and on the morrow they 
were found on the ground, with their horses all tied together. 

Early in the day, some French, Germans, and Savoyards had 
broken through the archers of the prince's battalion, and had 
engaged with the men-at-arms, upon which the second bat- 
talion came to his aid; and it was time, for otherwise he would 
have been hard pressed. The first division, seeing the danger 
they were in, sent a knight ^ in great haste to the king of Eng- 
land, who was posted upon an eminence, near a windmill. On 
the knight's arrival, he said, "Sir, the earl of Warwick, the 
lord Stafford, the lord Reginald Cobham, and the others who are 
about your son are vigorously attacked by the French; and they 
entreat that you come to their assistance with your battalion 
for, if the number of the French should increase, they fear he 
will have too much to do." 

The king replied: "Is my son dead, unhorsed, or so badly 
wounded that he cannot support himself?" "Nothing of the 
sort, thank God," rejoined the knight; "but he is in so hot an 
engagement that he has great need of your help." The king 
Edward gives answered, "Now, Sir Thomas, return to those 

Prince^a chance ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^®^^ them from me not to send 
to win his spurs again for me this day, or expect that I shall come, 
let what will happen, as long as my son has life; and say that I 
command them to let the boy win his spurs; for I am deter- 
mined, if it please God, that all the glory and honor of this day 
shall be given to him, and to those into whose care I have en- 
trusted him." The knight returned to his lords and related the 
king's answer, which greatly encouraged them and mad^ them 
regret that they had ever sent such a message. 

Late after vespers, the king of France had not more about him 

1 Sir Thomas Norwich. 



THE BATTLE OF CRECY 435 

than sixty men, every one included. Sir John of Hainault, who 
was of the number, had once remounted the king; for the latter's 
horse had been killed under him by an arrow. He said to the king, 
"Sir, retreat while you have an opportunity, and do not expose 
Kinff Philip yourself so needlessly. If you have lost this 
abandons the battle, another timfi you will be the conqueror." 
After he had said this, he took the bridle of the 
king's horse and led him off by force; for he had before entreated 
him to retire. 

The king rode on until he came to the castle of La Broyes, 
where he found the gates shut, for it was very dark. The king 
ordered the governor of it to be summoned. He came upon the 
battlements and asked who it was that called at such an hour. 
The king answered, "Open, open, governor; it is the fortune of 
France." The governor, hearing the king's voice, immediately 
descended, opened the gate, and let down the bridge. The king 
and his company entered the castle; but he had with him only 
five barons — Sir John of Hainault, the lord Charles of Mont- 
morency, the lord of Beaujeu, the lord of Aubigny, and the lord 
of Montfort. The king would not bury himself in such a place as 
that, but, having taken some refreshments, set out again with 
his attendants about midnight, and rode on, under the direction 
of guides who were well acquainted with the country, until, 
about daybreak, he came to Amiens, where he halted. 

This Saturday the English never quitted their ranks in pur- 
suit of any one, but remained on the field, guarding their posi- 
Th E li h ^^^^ ^^^ defending themselves against all who 

after the attacked them. The battle was ended at the hour 

battle 

of vespers. When, on this Saturday night, the 

English heard no more hooting or shouting, nor any more crying 

out to particular lords, or their banners, they looked upon the 

field as their own and their enemies as beaten. 

They made great fires and lighted torches because of the 

darkness of the night. King Edward then came down from his 



436 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

post, who all that day had not put on his helmet, and,- with his 
whole battalion, advanced to the Prince of Wales, whom he 
embraced in his arms and kissed, and said, "Sweet son, God 
give you good preference. You are my son, for most loyally have 
you acquitted yourself this day. You are worthy to be a 
sovereign." The prince bowed down very low and humbled 
himself, giving all honor to the king his father. 

The English, during the night, made frequent thanksgivings 
to the Lord for the happy outcome of the day, and without 
rioting; for the king had forbidden all riot or noise. 

77. The Sack of Limoges (1370) 

As a single illustration of the devastation wrought by the Hundred 
Years' War, and of the barbarity of the commanders and troops engaged 
in it, Froissart's well-known description of the sack of Limoges in 1370 
by the army of the Black Prince is of no small interest. In some respects, 
of course, circumstances in connection with this episode were exceptional, 
and we are not to imagine that such heartless and indiscriminate massa- 
cres were common. Yet the evidence which has survived all goes to 
show that the long course of the war was filled with cruelty and destruc- 
tion in a measure almost inconceivable among civilized peoples in more 
modern times. 



Soxirce — Chroniques de Jean Froissart (Soci^t^ de I'Histoire de France 
edition), Chap. XCVII. Translated in Thomas Johnes, Froissart's 
Chronicles, Vol. II., pp. 61-68 passim. 

When word was brought to the prince that the city of Limoges ^ 
had become French, that the bishop, who had been his com- 
panion and one in whom he had formerly placed great confi- 

1 Limoges, besieged by the duke of Berry and the great French general, 
Bertrand du Guesclin, had just been forced to surrender. It was a very 
important town and its capture was the occasion of much elation among 
the French. Treaties were entered into between the duke of Berry on the 
one hand and the bishop and citizens of Limoges on the other, whereby the 
inhabitants recognized the sovereignty of the French king. It was the news 
of this surrender that so angered the Black Prince. 



THE SACK OF LIMOGES 437 

dence, was a party to all the treaties and had greatly aided and 
assisted in the surrender, he was in a violent passion and held 
The Black the bishop and all other churchmen in very low 

solves tore- estimation, in whom formerly he had put great 
take Limoges trust. He swore by the soul of his father, which 
he had never perjured, that he would have it back again, that 
he would not attend to anything before he had done this, and 
that he would make the inhabitants pay dearly for their treach- 
ery. ... 1 

All these men-at-arms were drawn out in battle-array and took 
the field, when the whole country began to tremble for the 
consequences. At that time the Prince of Wales was not able 
to mount his horse, but was, for his greater ease, carried in a 
litter. They followed the road to the Limousin,^ in order to get 
to Limoges, where in due time they arrived and encamped all 
around it. The prince swore he would never leave the place 
until he had regained it. 

The bishop of the place and the inhabitants found that they 
had acted wickedly and had greatly incensed the prince, for which 
they were very repentant, but that was now of no avail, as they 
were not the masters of the town.^ When the prince and his 
marshals had well considered the strength and force of Limoges, 
and knew the number of people that were in it, they agreed that 
The town to they could never take it by assault, but said they 
be undermined would attempt it by another manner. The prince 
was always accustomed to carry with him on his expeditions a 
large body of miners. These were immediately set to work and 
made great progress. The knights who were in the town soon 



1 A force of 3,200 men was led by the Black Prince from the town of Cognac 
to undertake the siege of Limoges. Froissart here enumerates a large 
number of notable knights who went with the expedition. 

2 The Limousin was a district in south central France, southeast of 
Poitou. 

^ Limoges was now in the hands of three commanders representing the 
French king. Their names were John de Villemur, Hugh de la Roche, and 
Roger de Beaufort. 



438 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

perceived that they were undermining them, and on that account 
began to countermine to prevent the effect. 

The Prince of Wales remained about a month, and not more, 
before the city of Limoges. He would not allow any assaults or 
skirmishing, but kept his miners steadily at work. The knights 
in the town perceived what they were about and made counter- 
mines to destroy them, but they failed in their attempt. When 
the miners of the prince (who, as they found themselves counter- 
mined, kept changing the line of direction of their own mine) 
had finished their business, they came to the prince and said, 
"My lord, we are ready, and will throw down, whenever it pleases 
you, a very large part of the wall into the ditch, through the 
breach of which you may enter the town at your ease and with- 
out danger." 

This news was very agreeable to the prince, who replied: "I 
desire, then, that you prove your words to-morrow morning at 
six o'clock." The miners set fire to the combustibles in the 
mine, and on the morrow morning, as they had foretold the 
The English prince, they flung down a great piece of wall which 
assault filled the ditches. The English saw this with 

pleasure, for they were armed and prepared to enter the town. 
Those on foot did so and ran to the gate, which they destroyed, 
as well as the barriers, for there were no other defenses; and all 
this was done so suddenly that the inhabitants had not time to 
prevent it. 

The prince, the duke of Lancaster, the earls of Cambridge and 
of Pembroke, sir Guiscard d'Angle and the others, with their 
men, rushed into the town. You would then have seen pillagers, 
active to do mischief, running through the town, slaying men, 
women, and children, according to their orders. It was a most 
melancholy business; for all ranks, ages, and sexes cast them- 
selves on their knees before the prince, begging for mercy; but 
he was so inflamed with passion and revenge that he listened 
to none. But all were put to the sword, wherever they could 



THE TREATIES OF BRETIGNY AND TROYES 439 

be found, even those who were not guilty. For I know not 
why the poor were not spared, who could not have had any 
Barbarity of P^^^ i^ ^^® treason; but they suffered for it, and 
the sack indeed more than those who had been the leaders 

of the treachery. 

There was not that day in the city of Limoges any heart so 
hardened, or that had any sense of religion, that did not deeply 
bewail the unfortunate events passing before men's eyes; for 
upwards of three thousand men, women, and children were put to 
death that day. God have mercy on their souls, for they were 
truly martyrs. . . . The entire town was pillaged, burned, 
and totally destroyed. The English then departed, carrying 
with them their booty and prisoners. 

78. The Treaties of Bretigny (1360) and Troyes (1420) 

The most important documents in the diplomatic history of the Hun- 
dred Years' War are the texts of the treaty of London (1359), the treaty 
of Bretigny (1360), the truce of Paris (1396), the treaty of Troyes (1420), 
the treaty of Arras (1435), and the truce of Tours (1444). Brief extracts 
from two of these are given below. The treaty of Bretigny was nego- 
tiated soon after the refusal of the French to ratify the treaty of London. 
In November, 1359, King Edward III., with his son, Edward, the Black 
Prince, and the duke of Lancaster, crossed the Channel, marched on 
Rheims, and threatened Paris. Negotiations for a new peace were ac- 
tively opened in April, 1360, after the English had established themselves 
at Montlheri, south from Paris. The French king, John II., who had 
been taken prisoner at Poitiers (1356), gave full powers of negotiation 
to his son Charles, duke of Normandy and regent of the kingdom. For 
some time no definite conclusions were reached, owing chiefly to Ed- 
ward's unwillingness to renounce his claim to the French throne. Late 
in April the negotiations were transferred to Chartres, subsequently to 
Bretigny. Finally, on the eiglith of May, representatives of the two par- 
ties signed the so-called treaty of Bretigny. Although the instrument 
was promptly ratified by the French regent and by the Black Prince 
(and, if we may believe Froissart, by the two kings themselves), it was 



440 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

afterwards revised and accepted in a somewhat different form by the 
monarchs and their following assembled at Calais (October 24, 1360), 
The most important respect in which the second document differed from 
the first was the omission of Article 12 of the first treaty, in which Ed- 
ward renounced his claim to the throne of France and the sovereignty of 
Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Brittany, and Flanders; neverthe- 
less Edward, at Calais, made this renunciation in a separate convention, 
which for all practical purposes was regarded as a part of the treaty. 
The passages printed below are taken from the Calais text. Most of the 
thirty-nine articles composing the document are devoted to mere de- 
tails. The war was renewed after a few years, and within two decades 
the English had lost aU the territory guaranteed to them in 1360, except 
a few coast towns. 

The treaty of Troyes (1420) belongs to one of the most stormy periods 
in all French history. The first two decades of the fifteenth century 
were marked by a cessation of the war with England (until its renewal 
in 1415), but also unfortunately by the outbreak of a desperate civil 
struggle between two great factions of the French people, the Burgun- 
. dians and the Armagnacs. The Burgundians, led by Philip the Bold 
and John the Fearless (successive dukes of Burgundy), stood for a policy 
of friendship with England, while the Armagnacs, comprising the ad- 
herents of Charles, duke of Orleans, whose wife was a daughter of the 
count of Armagnac, advocated the continuation of the war with the 
English ; though, in reality, the forces which kept the two factions apart 
were jealousy and ambition rather than any mere question of foreign 
relations. The way was prepared for a temporary Burgundian triumph 
by the notable victory of the English at Agincourt in 1415 and by the 
assassination of John the Fearless at Paris in 1419, which made peace 
impossible and drove the Burgundians openly into the arms of the Eng- 
lish. Philip the Good, the new duke of Burgundy, became the avowed 
ally of the English king Henry V., who since 1417 had been slowly but 
surely conquering Normandy and now had the larger portion of it in 
his possession. Philip recognized Henry as the true heir to the French 
throne and in 1419 concluded with him two distinct treaties on that 
basis. Charles VI., the reigning king of France, was mentally unbalanced 
and the queen, who bitterly hated the Armagnacs (with whom her son, 
the Dauphin Charles, was actively identified), was easily persuaded by 



THE TREATIES OF BRETIGNY AND TROYES 441 

Duke Philip to acquiesce in a treaty by which the succession should be 
vested in the English king upon the death of Charles VI. The result 
was the treaty of Troyes, signed May 21, 1420. According to agreements 
already entered into by Philip and Henry, the latter was to marry 
Catherine, daughter of Charles VI. (the marriage was not mentioned in 
the treaty of Troyes, but it was clearly assumed), and he was to act as 
regent of France until Charles VI. 's death and then become king in his 
own name. Most of the thirty-one articles of the treaty were taken up 
with a definition of Henry's position and obligations as regent and pro- 
spective sovereign of France. 

In due time the marriage of Henry and Catherine took place and 
Henry assumed the regency, though the Armagnacs, led by the Dauphin, 
refused absolutely to accept the settlement. War broke out, in the 
course of which (in 1422) Henry V. died and was succeeded by his in- 
* fant son, Henry VI. In the same year Charles VI. also died, which 
meant that the young Henry would become king of France. With such 
a prospect the future of the country looked dark. Nevertheless, the 
death of Charles VI. and of Henry V. came in reality as a double bless- 
ing. Henry V. might long have kept the French in subjection and his 
position as Charles VI. 's son-in-law gave him some real claim to rule in 
France. But with the field cleared, ^s it was in 1422, opportunity was 
given for the Dauphin Charles (Charles VII.) to retrieve the fallen for- 
tunes of his country — a task which, with more or less energy and skill, 
he managed in the long run to accomphsh. 

Sources — (a) Text in Eugene Cosneau, Les Grands Traites de la Guerre de 
Cent Ans ["The Great Treaties of the Hundred Years' War"], 
Paris, 1889, pp. 39-68 passim. 
(b) Text in Cosneau, ibid. pp. 102-115 passim. 

(a) 

1. The king of England shall hold for himself and his heirs, 

for all t'ime to come, in addition to that which he holds in Guienne 

Territories ^^^ Gascony, all the possessions which are 

conceded to enumerated below, to be held in the same man- 

the Enghsh ' 

by the treaty ner that the king of France and his sons, or any 

re igny ^£ their ancestors, have held them. . . .^ 
1 Here follows a minute enumeration of the districts, towns, and castles 



442 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 

7. And likewise the said king and his eldest son ^ shall give 
order, by their letters patent to all archbishops and other prelates 
of the holy Church, and also to counts, viscounts, barons, nobles, 
citizens, and others of the cities, lands, countries, islands, and 
places before mentioned, that they shall be obedient to the king 
of England and to his heirs and at their ready command, in the 
same manner in which they have been obedient to the kings and 
to the crown of France. And by the same letters they shall 
liberate and absolve them from all homage, pledges, oaths, obli- 
gations, subjections, and promises made by any of them to the 
kings and to the crown of France in any manner. 

13. It is agreed that the king of France shall pay to the king 
of England three million gold crowns, of which two are worth 
an obol of English money. ^ * 

30. It is agreed that honest alliances, friendships, and con- 
federations shall be formed by the two kings of France and 
p . . England and their kingdoms, not repugnant to 

regarding the honor or the conscience of one king or the 

other. No alliances which they have, on this side 
or that, with any person of Scotland or Flanders, or any other 
country, shall be allowed to stand in the way.^ 



conceded to the English. The 'most important were Poitou, Limousin, 
Rouergne, and Saintonge in the south, and Calais, Guines, and Ponthieu in 
the north. 

1 That is, King John II. and the regent Charles. 

2 The enormous ransom thus specified for King John was never paid. 
The three million gold crowns would have a purchasing power of perhaps 
forty or forty-five million dollars to-day. On the strength of the treaty 
provision John was immediately released from captivity. With curious 
disregard of the bad conditions prevailing in France as the result of foreign 
and civil war he began preparations for a crusade, which, however, he was 
soon forced to abandon. In 1364, attracted by the gayety of English life as 
contrasted with the wretchedness and gloom of his impoverished subjects, 
he went voluntarily to England , where he died before the festivities in honor 
of his coming were completed. 

■■' Throughout the Hundred Years' War the English had maintained close 
relations with the Flemish enemies of France, just as France, in defiance of 
English opposition, had kept up her traditional friendship with Scotland. 
The treaty of Bretigny provided for a mutual reshaping of foreign policy, 
to the end that these obstacles to peace might be removed. 



THE TREATIES OF BRETIGNY AND TROYES 443 

(b) 

6. After our death/ and from that time forward, the crown 
The Treaty of and kingdom of France, with all their rights and 
the^uccession appurtenances, shall be vested permanently in our 
upon Henry V son [son-in-law]. King Henry, and his heirs. 

7. . . . The power and authority to govern and to control 
the public affairs of the said kingdom shall, during our life-time, 
be vested in our son. King Henry, with the advice of the nobles 
and the wise men who are obedient to us, and who have considera- 
tion for the advancement and honor of the said kingdom. . . . 

22. It is agreed that during our life-time we shall designate 
our son. King Henry, in the French language in this fashion, Notre 
Henry's '^^^^ ^^^^ /^^^ Henri, roi d'Angleterre, heritier de 

^itle France; and in the Latin language in this manner, 

Noster prcecarissimus filius Henricus, rex Anglice, heres Francice. 

24. . . . [It is agreed] that the two kingdoms shall be 
governed from the time that our said son, or any of his heirs, 
shall assume the crown, not divided between different kings at 
Union of ^^^^ same time, but under one person, who shall 

France and j^g king and sovereign lord of both kingdoms: 

England to be ^ ^ . 

through the observing all pledges and all other things, to each 

crown on y kingdom its rights, liberties or customs, usages and 

laws, not submitting in any manner one kingdom to the other.^ 

29. In consideration of the frightful and astounding crimes 

and misdeeds committed against the kingdom of France by 

Charles, the said Dauphin, it is agreed that we, our son Henry, 

and also our very dear son Philip, duke of Burgundy, will never 

treat for peace or amity with the said Charles.^ 

1 That is, the death of King Charles VI. 

2 France was not to be dealt with as conquered territory. This article 
comprises the only important provision in the treaty for safeguarding the 
interests of the French people. 

' Charles VI., Henry V., and Philip the Good bind themselves not to come 
to any sort of terms with the Dauphin, which compact reveals the irreconci- 
lable attitude characteristic of the factional and dynastic struggles of the 
period. Chapter 6 of the treaty disinherits the Dauphin; chapter 29 pro- 
claims him an enemy of France. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

The question as to when the Middle Ages came to an end cannot be 
answered with a specific date, or even with a particular century. The 
transition from the mediaeval world to the modern was gradual and was 
accomplished at a much earlier period in some lines than in others. 
Roughly speaking, the change fell within the two centuries and a half 
from 1300 to 1550. This transitional epoch is commonly designated 
the Age of the Renaissance, though if the term is taken in its most proper 
sense as denoting the flowering of an old into a new culture it scarcely 
does justice to the period, for political and religious developments in 
these centuries were not less fundamental than the revival and fresh 
stimulus of culture. But in the earlier portion of the period, particularly 
the fourteenth century, the intellectual awakening was the most obvious 
feature of the movement and, for the time being, the most important. ' 

The renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was not the 
first that Europe had known. There had been a notable revival of learn- 
ing in the time of Charlemagne — the so-called Carolingian renaissance; 
another at the end of the tenth century, in the time of the Emperor 
Otto III. and Pope Sylvester II.; and a third in the twelfth century, 
with its center in northern France. The first two, however, had proved 
quite transitory, and even the third and most promising had dried up 
in the fruitless philosophy of the scholastics. 

Before there could be a vital and permanent intellectual revival it was 
indispensable that the mediaeval attitude of mind undergo a funda- 
mental change. This attitude may be summed up in the one phrase, 
the absolute dominance of "authority" — the authority, primarily, of 
the Church, supplemented by the writings of a few ancients like Aristotle. 
The scholars of the earlier Middle Ages busied themselves, not with 
research and investigation whereby to increase knowledge, but rather 
with commenting on the Scriptures, the writings of the Church fathers, 



DANTE 'S DEFENSE OF ITALIAN AS A LITERARY LANGUAGE 445 

and Aristotle, and drawing conclusions and inferences by reasoning from 
these accepted authorities. There was no disposition to question what 
was found in the books, or to supplement it with fresh information. Only 
after about 1300 did human interests become sufficiently broadened to 
make men no longer altogether content with the mere process of thresh- 
ing over the old straw. Gradually there began to appear scholars who 
suggested the idea, novel for the day, that the books did not contain all 
that was worth knowing, and also that perchance some things that had 
long gone unquestioned just because they were in the books were not 
true after all. In other words, they proposed to investigate things for 
themselves and to apply the tests of observation and impartial reason. 
The most influential factor in producing this change of attitude was 
the revival of classical literature and learning. The Latin classics, and 
even some of the Greek, had not been unknown in the earlier Middle 
Ages, but they had not been read widely, and when read at all they had 
been valued principally as models of rhetoric rather than as a living lit- 
erature to be enjoyed for the ideas that were contained in it and the 
forms in which they were expressed. These ideas were, of course, gen- 
erally pagan, and that in itself was enough to cause the Church to look 
askance at the use of classical writings, except for grammatical or anti- 
quarian purposes. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, 
due to a variety of causes, the reading of the classics became commoner 
than since Roman days, and men, bringing to them more open minds, 
were profoundly attracted by the fresh, original, human ideas of life and 
the world with which Vergil and Horace and Cicero, for example, over- 
flowed. It was all a new discovery of the world and of man, and from the 
humanitas which the scholars found set forth as the classical conception 
of culture they themselves took the name of "humanists, " while the sub- 
jects of their studies came to be known as the litterce humaniores. This 
first great phase of the Renaissance — the birth of humanism — found 
its finest expression in Dante and Petrarch, and it cannot be studied 
with better effect than in certain of the writings of these two men. 

79. Dante's Defense of Italian as a Literary Language 

Dante Alighieri was born at Florence in 1265. Of his early life little 
is known. His family seems to have been too obscure to have much part 



446 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

in the civil struggles with which Florence, and all Italy, in that day- 
were vexed. The love affair with Beatrice, whose story Boccaccio re- 
lates with so much zest, is the one sharply-defined feature of Dante's 
youth and early manhood. It is known that at the age of eighteen the 
young Florentine was a poet and was winning wide recognition for his 
sonnets. Much time was devoted by him to study of literature and the 
arts, but the details of his employments, intellectual and otherwise, are 
impossible to make out. In 1290 occurred the death of Beatrice, which 
event marked an epoch in the poetical lover's life. In his sorrow he 
took refuge in the study of such books as Boethius's Consolations of 
Philosophy and Cicero's Friendship, and became deeply interested in 
literary, and especially philosophical, problems. In 1295 he entered 
political life, taking from the outset a prominent part in the deliberations 
of the Florentine General Council and the Council of Consuls of the Arts. 
He assumed a firm attitude against all forms of lawlessness and in re- 
sistance to any external interference in Florentine affairs. Owing to 
conditions which he could not influence, however, his career in this 
direction was soon cut short and most of the remainder of his life was 
spent as a pohtical exile, at Lucca, Verona, Ravenna, and other Italian 
cities, with a possible visit to Paris. He died at Ravenna, September 14, 
1321, in his fifty-seventh year. 

Dante has well been called "the Janus-faced," because he stood at 
the threshold of the new era and looked both forward and backward. 
His Divine Comedy admirably sums up the mediseval spirit, and yet it 
contains many suggestions of the coming age. His method was essen- 
tially that of the scholastics, but he knew many of the classics and had 
a genuine respect for them as literature. He was a medisevalist in his 
attachment to the Holy Roman Empire, yet he cherished the purely 
modern ambition of a united Italy. It is deeply significant that he 
chose to write his great poem — one of the most splendid in the world's 
literature — in the Italian tongue rather than the Latin. Aside from 
the fact that this, more than anything else, caused the Tuscan dialect, 
rather than the rival Venetian and Neapolitan dialects, to become the 
modern Italian, it evidenced the new desire for the popularization of 
literature which was a marked characteristic of the dawning era. Not 
content with putting his greatest effort in the vernacular, Dante under- 
took formally to defend the use of the popular tongue for hterary pur- 



Dante's defense of Italian as a literary language 447 

poses. This he did in II Convito ("The Banquet"), a work whose date 
is quite uncertain, but which was undoubtedly produced at some time 
while its author was in exile. It is essentially a prose commentary upon 
three canzoni written for the honor and glory of the "noble, beautiful, 
and most compassionate lady, Philosophy. " In it Dante sought to set 
philosophy free from the schools and from the heavy disputations of the 
scholars and to render her beauty visible even to the unlearned. It was 
the first important work on philosophy written in the Italian tongue, an 
innovation which the author rightly regarded as calling for some ex- 
planation and defense. The passage quoted from it below comprises this 
defense. Similar views on. the nobility of the vulgar language, as com- 
pared with the Latin, were later set forth in fuller form in the treatise 
De Vulgari Eloquentia. 



Source — Dante Alighieri, II Convito ["The Banquet"], Bk. I., Chaps. 5-13 
passim. Translated by Katharine Hillard (London, 1889), pp. 
17-47 passim. 

V. 1. This bread being cleansed of its accidental impurities,^ 
we have now but to free it from one [inherent] in its substance, 
that is, its being in the vulgar tongue, and not in Latin; so that 
we might metaphorically call it made of oats instead of wheat. 
J, And this [fault] may be briefly excused by three 

for using reasons, which moved me to prefer the former 

rather than the latter [language]. The first arises 
from care to avoid an unfit order of things; the second, from a 
consummate liberality; the third, from a natural love of one's 
own tongue. And I intend here in this manner to discuss, in due 

1 Dante represents the commentaries composing the Convito as in the 
nature of a banquet, the "meats" of which were to be set forth in fourteen 
courses, corresponding to the fourteen canzoni, or lyric poems, which were 
to be commented upon. As a matter of fact, for some unknown reason, the 
" banquet " was broken off at the end of the third course. "At the beginning 
of every well-ordered banquet" observes the author in an earlier passage 
(Bk. II., Chap. 1) "the servants are wont to take the bread given out for 
it, and cleanse it from every speck." Dante has just cleansed his viands from 
the faults of egotism and obscurity, — the "accidental impurities"; he now 
proceeds to clear them of a less superficial difficulty, i. e., the fact that in 
serving them use is made of the Italian rather than the Latin language. 



448 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

order, these things and their causes, that I may free myself from 
the reproach above named. 

3. For, in the first place, had it [the commentary] been in 
Latin, it would have been sovereign rather than subject, by its 
nobility, its virtue, and its beauty. By its nobility, because 
Latin is enduring and incorruptible, and the vulgar tongue is 
unstable and corruptible. For we see that the ancient books of 
Latin tragedy and comedy cannot be changed from the form we 
Th T f fi c\ ^^^^ to-day, which is not the case with the vulgar 
the Italian tongue, as that can be changed at will. For we 

see in the cities of Italy, if we take notice of the 
past fifty years, how many words have been lost, or invented, or 
altered; therefore, if a short time can work such changes, how 
much more can a longer period effect! So that I think, should 
they who departed this life a thousand years ago return to their 
cities, they would believe them to be occupied by a foreign 
people, so different would the language be from theirs. Of this 
I shall speak elsewhere more fully, in a book which I intend to 
write, God willing, on Vulgar Eloquence} 

VII. 4. . . . The Latin could only have explained them 
[the canzoni] to scholars; for the rest would not have understood 
it. Therefore, as among those who desire to understand them 
there are many more illiterate than learned, it follows that the 
Latin would not have fulfilled this behest as well as the vulgar 
tongue, which is understood both by the learned and the un- 
learned. Also the Latin would have explained them to people 
of other nations, such as Germans, English, and others; in doing 
which it would have exceeded their order. ^ For it would have 

1 The date of the composition of the De Vulgari Eloquentia is unknown, 
but there are reasons for assigning the work to the same period in the au- 
thor's life as the Convito. Like the Convito, it was left incomplete; fom- books 
were planned, but only the first and a portion of the second were written. 
In it an effort was made to establish the dominance of a perfect and imperial 
Italian language over all the dialects. The work itself was written in Latin, 
probably to command the attention of scholars whom Dante hoped to con7 
vert to the use of the vernacular. 

2 The author conceives of the canzoni as masters and the commentaries 
as servants. 



Dante's defense of Italian as a literary language 449 

been against their will I say, speaking generally, to have ex- 
plained their meaning where their beauty could not go with it. 
Translations And, moreover, let all observe that nothing 

cannot pre- harmonized by the laws of the Muses ^ can be 
serve the lit- 
erary splendor changed from its own tongue to another one 

of the originals ^i^^out destroying all its sweetness and har- 
mony. And this is the reason why Homer is not turned from 
Greek into Latin like the other writings we have of theirs [the 
Greeks]; ^ and this is why the verses of the Psalter ^ lack musical 
sweetness and harmony; for they have been translated from 
Hebrew to Greek, and from Greek to Latin, and in the first 
translation all this sweetness perished. 

IX. 1. . . . The Latin would not have served many; be- 
cause, if we recall to mind what has already been said, scholars 
in other languages than the Italian could not have availed them- 
selves of its service."^ And of those of this speech (if we should 
care to observe who they are) we shall find that only to one in a 
thousand could it really have been of use; because they would 
not have received it, so prone are they to base desires, and thus 
deprived of that nobility of soul which above all desires this 
food. And to their shame I say that they are not worthy to be 
called scholars, because they do not pursue learning for its own 
sake, but for the money or the honors that they gain thereby; 
just as we should not call him a lute-player who kept a lute in the 
house to hire out, and not to play upon. 

X. 5. Again, I am impelled to defend it [the vulgar tongue] 
from many of its accusers, who disparage it and commend others, 
above all the language of Oco,^ saying that the latter is better and 

1 That is, any poetical composition. 

2 Some students of Dante hold that this phrase about Homer should be 
rendered "does not admit of being turned"; but others take it in the absolute 
sense and base on it an argument against Dante's knowledge of Greek literature. 

^ The Book of Psalms. 

■'•The canzoni were in Italian and a Latin commentary would have been 
useless to scholars of other nations, because they could not have understood 
the canzoni to which it referred. 

^The Provencal language — the peculiar speech of southeastern France, 
whence comes the name Languedoc. Oc is the affirmative particle "yes." 

Med. Hist.— 29 



450 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

more beautiful than the former, wherein they depart from the 
truth. Wherefore by this commentary shall be seen the great 
The Italian of excellence of the vulgar tongue of Si,^ because 
cellence^^ttian' (although the highest and most novel concep- 
other tongues tions can be almost as fittingly, adequately, and 
beautifully expressed in it as in the Latin) its excellence in 
rhymed pieces, on account of the accidental adornments con- 
nected with them, such as rhyme and rhythm, or ordered num- 
bers, cannot be perfectly shown; as it is with the beauty of a 
woman, when the splendor of her jewels and her garments draw 
more admiration than her person.^ Wherefore he who would 
judge a woman truly looks at her when, unaccompanied by any 
accidental adornment, her natural beaut}^ alone remains to her; 
so shall it be with this commentary, wherein shall be seen the 
facility of its language, the propriety of its diction, and the sweet 
discourse it shall hold; which he who considers well shall see to 
be full of the sweetest and most exquisite beauty. But because 
it is most virtuous in its design to show the futility and malice 
of its accuser, I shall tell, for the confounding of those who attack 
the Italian language, the purpose which moves them to do this; 
and upon this I shall now write a special chapter, that their 
infamy may be the more notorious. 

XI. 1. To the perpetual shame and abasement of those wicked 
men of Italy who praise the language of others and disparage 
Why people of their own, I would say that their motive springs 
dSpis^e^thei? ^^^^ ^^^ abominable causes. The first is in- 
native tongue tellectual blindness; the second, vicious excuses; 
the third, greed of vain-glory; the fourth, an argument based on 
envy; the fifth and last, littleness of soul, that is, pusillanimity. 
And each of these vices has so large a following, that few are 
they who are free from them. . . . 

1 Si is the Italian affirmative particle. In the Inferno Dante refers to 
Italy as "that lovely country where the si is sounded" (XXX., 80). 

2 That is, prose shows the true beauty of a language more effectively than 
poetry, in which the attention is distracted by the ornaments of verse. 



DANTE's defense of ITALIAN AS A LITERARY LANGUAGE 451 

3. The second kind work against our language by vicious 
excuses. Tliese are they who would rather be considered mas- 
ters than be such; and, to avoid the reverse (that is, not to be 
considered masters), they always lay the blame upon the ma- 
terials prepared for their art, or upon their tools; as the bad 
The unskilful smith blames the iron given him, and the bad 
faults to^the^^"^ lute-player blames the lute, thinking thus to lay 
language the fault of the bad knife or the bad playing 

upon the iron or the lute, and to excuse themselves. Such are 
they (and they are not few) who wish to be considered orators; 
and in order to excuse themselves for not speaking, or for speak- 
ing badly, blame and accuse their material, that is, their own 
language, and praise that of others in which they are not re- 
quired to work. And whoever wishes to see wherein this tool 
[the vulgar tongue] deserves blame, let him look at the work 
that good workmen have done with it, and he will recognize the 
viciousness of those who, laying the blame upon it, think they 
excuse themselves. Against such does Tullius exclaim, in the 
beginning of one of his books called De Finihus,^ because in his 
time they blamed the Latin l::.nguage and commended the Greek, 
for the same reasons that these people consider the Italian vile 
and the Provengal precious. 

XII. 3. That thing is nearest to a person which is, of all 
things of its kind, the most closely related to himself; thus of 
all men the son is nearest to the father, and of all arts medicine 
is nearest to the doctor, and music to the musician, because these 
are more closely related to them than any others; of all countries. 
People should ^^^ ^^^ ^ ™-^^ lives in is nearest to him, because it 

use their own ig most closely related to him. And thus a man's 

language, as 

iDeing most nat- own language is nearest to him, because most 

ural to them dosely related, being that one which comes alone 
and before all others in his mind, and not only of itself is it thus 

1 The author refers to Cicero's philosophical treatise De Finibus Bonorum 
et Malorum. 



452 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN KENAISSANCE 

related, but by accident, inasmuch as it is connected with those 
nearest to him, such as his kinsmen, and his fellow-citizens, and 
his own people. And this is his own language, which is not only, 
near, but the very nearest, to every one. Because if proximity 
be the seed of friendship, as has been stated above, it is plain 
that it has been one of the causes of the love I bear my own 
language, which is nearer to me than the others. The above- 
named reason (that is, that we are most nearly related to that 
which is first in our mind) gave rise to that custom of the people 
which makes the firstborn inherit everything, as the nearest of 
kin; and, because the nearest, therefore the most beloved. 

4. And again, its goodness makes me its friend. And here 
we must know that every good quality properly belonging to a 
thing is lovable in that thing; as men should have a fine beard, 
and women should have the whole face quite free from hair; as 
the foxhound' should have a keen scent, and the greyhound 
great speed. And the more peculiar this good quality, the more 
lovable it is, whence, although all virtue is lovable in man, that 
is most so which is most peculiarly human. . . . And we 
The Italian ^^® that, of all things pertaining to language, the 
fulfils the high- power of adequately expressing thought is the 
ment of a Ian- most loved and commended; therefore this is its 
guage peculiar virtue. And as this belongs to our own 

language, as has been proved above in another chapter, it is 
plain that this was one of the causes of my love for it; since, 
as we have said, goodness is one of the causes that engender 
love. 

80. Dante's Conception of the Imperial Power 

The best known prose work of Dante, the De Monarchia, is perhaps 
the most purely idealistic political treatise ever written. Its quality 
of idealism is so pronounced, in fact, that there is not even sufficient 
mention of contemporary men or events to assist in solving the wholly 
unsettled problem of the date of its composition. The De Monarchia is 
composed of three books, each of which is devoted to a fundamental 



dante's conception of the imperial power 453 

question in relation to the balance of temporal and spiritual authority. 
The first question is whether the temporal monarchy is necessary for 
the well-being of the world. The answer is that it is necessary for the 
preservation of justice, freedom, and unity and effectiveness of human 
effort. The second ciuestion is whether the Roman people took to itself 
this dignity of monarchy, or empire, by right. By a survey of Roman 
history from the days of JEneas to those of Csesar it is made to appear 
that it was God's will that the Romans should rule the world. The 
third question is the most vital of all and its answer constitutes the pith 
of the treatise. In brief it is, does the authority of the Roman monarch, 
or emperor, who is thus by right the monarch of the world, depend im- 
mediately upon God, or upon some vicar of God, the successor of Peter? 
This question Dante answers first negatively by clearing away the fa- 
miliar defenses of spiritual supremacy, and afterwards positively, by 
bringing forward specific arguments for the temporal superiority. The 
selection given below comprises the most suggestive portions of Dante's 
treatment of this aspect of his subject. The method, it will be observed, 
is quite thoroughly scholastic. Whenever the De Monarchia was com- 
posed, it remained all but unknown until after the author's death (1321) ; 
but with the renewal of conflict between papacy and imperial power the 
imperialists were not slow to make use of the treatise, and by the middle 
of the fourteenth century it had become known throughout Europe, being 
admired by one party as much as it was abhorred by the other. At 
various times copies of it were burned as heretical and in the sixteenth 
century it was placed by the Roman authorities upon the Index of Pro- 
hibited Books. Few literary productions of the later Middle Ages ex- 
ercised greater influence upon contemporaty thought and politics. 

Source — Dante Ahghieri, De Monarchia ["Concerning Monarchy"], Bk. III., 
Chaps. 1-16 passim. Translated by Aurelia Henry (Boston, 1904), 
pp. 137-206 passim. 

I. 2. The question pending investigation, then, concerns two 

great luminaries, the Roman Pontiff [Pope] and the Roman 

Prince [Emperor]; and the point at issue is whether the authority 

The problem to ^^ ^-he Roman monarch, who, as proved in the 

be considered second book, is rightful monarch of the world, 

is derived from God directly, or from some vicar or minister of 



454 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

God, by whom I mean the successor of Peter, indisputable 
keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 

IV. 1. Those men to whom the entire subsequent discussion 
is directed assert that the authority of the Empire depends on 
the authority of the Church, just as the inferior artisan depends 
on the architect. They are drawn to this by divers opposing 
arguments, some of which they take from Holy Scripture, and 
some from certain acts performed by the chief pontiff, and by 
the Emperor himself; and they endeavor to make their convic- 
tion reasonable. 

2. For, first, they maintain that, according to Genesis, God 
made two mighty luminaries, a greater and a lesser, the former 
to hold supremacy by day and the latter by night [Gen., i. 15, 16]. 
These they interpret allegorically to be the two rulers — spiritual 
_, . and temporal.^ Whence they argue that as the 

of the sun lesser luminary, the moon, has no light but that 

gained from the sun, so the temporal ruler has 
no authority but that gained from the spiritual ruler. 

8. I proceed to refute the above assumption that the two 
luminaries of the world typify its two ruling powers. The whole 
force of their argument lies in the interpretation; but this we 
can prove indefensible in two ways. First, since these ruling 
powers are, as it were, accidents necessitated by man himself, 
God would seem to have used a distorted order in creating first 
accidents, and then the subject necessitating them. It is absurd 
to speak thus of God, but it is evident from the Word that the 
two lights were created on the fourth day, and man on the sixth. 

9. Secondly, the two ruling powers exist as the directors of 
men toward certain ends, as will be shown further on. But had 
man remained in the state of innocence in which God made him, 
he would have required no such direction. These ruling powers 

1 For example, Pope Innocent IV. (1243-1254) declared: "Two lights, 
the sun and the moon, illumine the globe; two powers, the papal and the 
royal, govern it; but as the moon receives her light from the more brilliant 
star, so kings reign by the chief of the Church, who comes from God." 



dante's conception of the imperial power 455 

are therefore remedies against the infirmity of sin. Since on 

the fourth day man was not only not a sinner, but was not even 

, , ^ existent, the creation of a remedy would have been 

An abstruse ' -^ 

bit of mediae- purposeless, which is contrary to divine goodness. 
Foolish indeed would be the physician who 
should make ready a plaster for the abscess of a man not yet born. 
Therefore it cannot be asserted that God made the two ruling 
powers on the fourth day; and consequently the meaning of 
Moses cannot have been what it is supposed to be. 

10. Also, in order to be tolerant, we may refute this fallacy 
by distinction. Refutation by distinction deals more gently with 
an adversary, for it shows him to be not absolutely wrong, as 
does refutation by destruction. I say, then, that although the 
moon may have abundant light only as she receives it from the 
sun, it does not follow on that account that the moon herself 
owes her existence to the sun. It must be recognized that the 
essence of the moon, her strength, and her function, are not one 
and the same thing. Neither in her essence, her strength, nor 
her function taken absolutely, does the moon owe her existence 
to the sun, for her movement is impelled by her own force and 
her influence by her own rays. Besides, she has a certain light 
of her own, as is shown in eclipse. It is in order to fulfill her 
function better and more potently that she borrows from the 
sun abundance of light, and works thereby more effectively. 

11. In like manner, I say, the temporal power receives from 

the spiritual neither its existence, nor its strength, which is its 

authority, nor even its function, taken absolutely. But well 

Why the argu- for her does she receive therefrom, through the 

^,l''\?H°"!l,nn^ light of grace which the benediction of the chief 
sun and moon & = 

fails pontiff sheds upon it in heaven and on earth, 

strength to fulfill her function more perfectly. So the argu- 
ment was at fault in form, because the predicate of the conclu- 
sion is not a term of the major premise, as is evident. The 
syllogism runs thus: The moon receives light from the sun, which 



456 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

is the spiritual power; the temporal ruling power is the moon; 
therefore the temporal receives authority from the spiritual. 
They introduce ''light" as the term of the major, but "au- 
thority" as predicate of the conclusion, which two things we 
have seen to be diverse in subject and significance. 

VIII. 1. From the same gospel they quote the saying of 
Christ to Peter, "Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven" [Matt., xvi. 19], and understand this saying 
to refer alike to all the Apostles, according to the text of Matthew 
and John [Matt., xviii. 18 and John, xx. 23]. They reason from 
Arffument ^'^^^ ^^^^ ^^® successor of Peter has been granted 

from the pre- of God power to bind and loose all things, and 
keys commit- then infer that he has power to loose the laws 
ted to Peter ^^^^ decrees of the Empire, and to bind the laws 
and decrees of the temporal kingdom. Were this true, their 
inference would be correct. 

2. But we must reply to it by making a distinction against 
the major premise of the syllogism which they employ. Their 
syllogism is this: Peter had power to bind and loose all things; 
the successor of Peter has like power with him; therefore the 
successor of Peter has power to loose and bind all things. From 
this they infer that he has power to loose and bind the laws and 
decrees of the Empire. 

3. I concede the minor premise, but the major only with dis- 
tinction. Wherefore I say that "all," the symbol of the uni- 
versal which is implied in "whatsoever," is never distributed 
beyond the scope of the distributed term. When I say, "All ani- 
mals run," the distribution of "all" comprehends whatever 
comes under the genus "animal." But when I say, "All men 
run," the symbol of the universal refers only to whatever comes 
under the term "man." And when I say, "All grammarians 
run," the distribution is narrowed still further. 

4. Therefore we must always determine what it is over which 
the symbol of the universal is distributed; then, from the recog- 



dante's conception of the imperial power 457 

nized nature and scope of the distributed term, will be easily 
apparent the extent of the distribution. Now, were "what- 
soever" to be understood absolutely when it is said, ''Whatso- 
ever thou shalt bind," he would certainly have the power they 
claim; nay, he would have even greater power; — he would be able 
to loose a wife from her husband, and, while the man still lived, 
bind her to another — a thing he can in nowise do. He would 
be able to absolve me, while impenitent — a thing which God 
Himself cannot do. 

5. So it is evident that the distribution of the term under 
discussion is to be taken, not absolutely, but relatively to some- 
thing else. A consideration of the concession to which the dis- 
tribution is subjoined will make manifest this related some- 
Dante's inter- thing. Christ said to Peter, "I will give unto 
the Scripture *^®® ^^® ^eys of the kingdom of heaven;" that 
in question is, I will make thee doorkeeper of the kingdom 
of heaven. Then He adds, "and whatsoever," that is, "every- 
thing which," and He means thereby, "Everything which per- 
tains to that office thou shalt have power to bind and loose." 
And thus the symbol of the universal which is implied in "what- 
soever" is limited in its distribution to the prerogative of the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven. Understood thus, the proposi- 
tion is true, but understood absolutely, it is obviously not. 
Therefore I conclude that, although the successor of Peter has 
authority to bind and loose in accordance with the requirements 
of the prerogative granted to Peter, it does not follow, as they 
claim, that he has authority to bind and loose the decrees or 
statutes of empire, unless they prove that this also belongs to 
the office of the keys. But further on we shall demonstrate that 
the contrary is true. 

XIII. 1. Now that we have stated and rejected the errors on 
which those chiefly rely who declare that the authority of the 
Roman Prince is dependent on the Roman Pontiff,^ we must 

1 The arguments disposed of by the author, in addition to those treated 



458 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

return and demonstrate the truth of that question which we 
propounded for discussion at the beginning. The truth will be 
evident enough if it can be shown, under the principle of inquiry 
agreed upon, that imperial authority derives immediately from 
the summit of all being, which is God. And this will be shown, 
whether we prove that imperial authority does not derive from 
that of the Church (for the dispute concerns no other authority), 
or whether we prove simply that it derives immediately from 
God. 

2. That ecclesiastical authority is not the source of imperial 
authority is thus verified. A thing non-existent, or devoid of 
active force, cannot be the cause of active force in a thing possess- 
ing that quality in full measure. But before the Church existed, 
or while it lacked power to act, the Empire had active force in 
The Church ^^^^^ measure. Hence the Church is the source, 

(or papacy) is neither of acting power nor of authority in the 

not the source 

of imperial au- Empire, where power to act and authority are 

thority identical. Let A be the Church, B the Empire, 

and C the power or authority of the Empire. If, A being non- 
existent, C is in B, the cause of C's relation to B cannot be A, 
since it is impossible that an effect should exist prior to its 
cause. Moreover, if, A being inoperative, C is in B, the cause of 
C's relation to B cannot be A, since it is indispensable for the 
production of effect that the cause should be in operation previ- 
ously, especially the efficient cause which we are considering 
here. 

3. The major premise of this demonstration is intelligible 

from its terms; the minor is confirmed by Christ and the Church. 

Christ attests it, as we said before, in His birth and death. The 

Church attests it in Paul's declaration to Festus in the Acts of 

in the passages here presented, are: the precedence of Levi over Judah 
(Gen., xxix. 34, 35), the election and deposition of Saul by Samuel (1 Sam., 
X. 1; XV. 23; xv. 28), the oblation of the Magi (Matt., ii. II), the two 
swords referred to by Peter (Luke, xxii. 38), the donation of Constantine, 
the summoning of Charlemagne by Pope Hadrian, and finally the argument 
from pure reason. 



dante's conception of the imperial power 459 

the Apostles: "I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought 

to be judged" [Acts, xxv. 10]; and in the admonition of God's 

Early Chris- angel to Paul a little later: "Fear not, Paul; 

tian recogni- thou must be brought before Caesar" [Acts, xxvh. 
tion of the au- 
thority of the 24]; and again, still later, in Paul's words to the 

Emperor Jews dwelling in Italy: "And when the Jews spake 

against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Csesar; not that I 
had aught to accuse my nation of," but "that I might dehver 
my soul from death" [Acts, xxviii. 19]. If Caesar had not 
already possessed the right to judge temporal matters, Christ 
would not have implied that he did, the angel would not have 
uttered such words, nor would he who said, "I desire to depart 
and be with Christ" [Phil., i. 23], have appealed to an un- 
qualified judge. 

XIV. 1. Besides, if the Church has power to confer authority 
on the Roman Prince, she would have it either from God, or 
from herself, or from some Emperor, or from the unanimous 
consent of mankind, or, at least, from the consent of the most 
influential. There is no other least crevice through which the 
power could have diffused itself into the Church. But from 
none of these has it come to her, and therefore the aforesaid 
power is not hers at all. 

XVI. 1. Although by the method of reduction to absurdity 
it has been shown in the foregoing chapter that the authority of 
empire has not its source in the Chief -Pontiff, yet it has not been 
fully proved, save by an inference, that its immediate source 
is God, seeing that if the authority does not depend on the vicar 
of God, we conclude that it depends on God Himself. For a 
perfect demonstration of the proposition we must prove directly 
that the Emperor, or Monarch, of the world has immediate 
relationship to the Prince of the universe, who is God. 

2. In order to realize this, it must be understood that man 
alone of all beings holds the middle place between corruptibility 
and incorruptibility, and is therefore rightly compared by phi- 



460 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

losophers to the horizon which Hes between the two hemispheres. 

Man may be considered with regard to either of his essential 

Positive argu- jDarts, body or soul. If considered in regard to 
ment that the ,i i i i i ■ • i i i r • ^ ^ 

authority of the body alone, he is perishable; it m regard to 

the emperor is i\^q gQ^} alone, he is imperishable. So the Phi- 

denved direct- ^ 

ly from God losopher ^ spoke well of its incorruptibility when 

he said in the second book, On the Soul, ''And this only can be 

separated as a thing eternal from that which perishes." 

3. If man holds a middle place between the perishable and the 
imperishable,, then, inasmuch as every man shares the nature of 
the extremes, man must share both natures. And inasmuch as 
every nature is ordained for a certain ultimate end, it follows 
that there exists for man a two-fold end, in order that as he alone 
of all beings partakes of the perishable and the imperishable, so 
he alone of all beings should be ordained for two ultimate ends. 
One end is for that in him which is perishable, the other for that 
which is imperishable. 

4. Omniscient Providence has thus designed two ends to be 
contemplated by man: first, the happiness of this life, which con- 
Double aspect ^i^ts ™ ^^^ activity of his natural powers, and is 
of human life prefigured by the terrestrial Paradise; and then 
the blessedness of life everlasting, which consists in the enjoy- 
ment of the countenance of God, to which man's natural powers 
may not obtain unless aided by divine light, and which may be 
symbolized by the celestial Paradise.^ 

5. To these states of blessedness, just as to diverse conclusions, 
man must come by diverse means. To the former we come by 
the teachings of philosophy, obeying them by acting in conformity 
with the moral and intellectual virtues; to the latter, through 
spiritual teachings which transcend human reason, and which 
we obey by acting in conformity with the theological virtues, 



1 This was the common mediaeval designation of Aristotle. 

2 For Dante's conception of the terrestrial and the celestial paradise see 
the Paradiso in the Divina Commedia. 



dante's conception of the imperial power 461 

faith, hope, and charity. Now the former end and means are 
made known to us by human reason, which the philosophers 
have wholly explained to us; and the latter by the Holy Spirit, 
which has revealed to us supernatural but essential truth through 
the prophets and sacred writers, through Jesus Christ, the coeter- 
nal Son of God, and through His disciples. Nevertheless, human 
passion would cast these behind, were not man, like horses 
astray in their brutishness, held to the road by bit and rein. 

6. Wherefore a twofold directive agent was necessary to man, 
in accordance with the twofold end; the Supreme Pontiff to lead 
the human race to life eternal by means of revelation, and the 
Emperor to guide it to temporal well-being by means of philo- 
sophic instruction. And since none or few — and these with ex- 
The proper ceeding difficulty — could attain this port, were 
Pope^and Em- ^°^ ^^® waves of seductive desire calmed, and 
peror mankind made free to rest in the tranquillity of 
peace, therefore this is the goal which he whom we call the 
guardian of the earth and Roman Prince should most urgently 
seek; then would it be possible for life on this mortal threshing- 
floor to pass in freedom and peace. The order of the world fol- 
lows the order inherent in the revolution of the heavens. To 
attain this order it is necessary that instruction productive of 
liberality and peace should be applied by the guardian of the 
realm, in due place and time, as dispensed by Him who is the 
ever-present Watcher of the whole order of the heavens. And 
He alone foreordained this order, that by it, in His providence. 
He might link together all things, each in its own place. 

7. If this is so, and there is none higher than He, only God 
elects and only God confirms. Whence we may further con- 
clude that neither those who are now, nor those who in any way 
whatsoever have been, called electors ^ have the right to be so 

1 These were the lay and ecclesiastical princes in whom was vested the 
right of choosing the Emperor. The electoral college was first clearly defined 
in the Golden Bull issued by Charles IV. in 1356 [see p. 409]. Its composition 
in Dante's time is uncertain. 



462 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN KENAISSANCE 

called; rather should they be entitled heralds of Divine Provi- 
dence. Whence it is that those in whom is vested the dignity 
of proclamation suffer dissension among themselves at times, 
when, all or part of them being shadowed by the clouds of 
passion, they discern not the face of God's dispensation. 

8. It is established, then, that the authority of temporal 
monarchy descends without mediation from the fountain of 
universal authority. And this fountain, one in its purity of 
source, flows into multifarious channels out of the abundance 
of its excellence. 

9. I believe I have now approached sufficiently close to the goal 
I had set myself, for I have taken the kernels of truth from the 
husks of falsehood, in that question which asked whether the 
office of monarchy was essential to the welfare of the world, and 
in the next which made inquiry whether the Roman people 
rightfully appropriated the empire, and in the last which sought 
whether the authority of the monarch derived from God directly, 
or from some other. But the truth of this final question must 
not be restricted to mean that the Roman Prince shall not be 
_,, . , , subject in some degree to the Roman Pontiff, for 
lation of the well-being that is mortal is ordered in a measure 

after well-being that is immortal. Wherefore let 
Caesar honor Peter as a first-born son should honor his father, 
so that, brilliant with the light of paternal grace, he may illumine 
with greater radiance the earthly sphere over which he has been 
set by Him who alone is Ruler of all things spiritual and tem- 
poral.^ 

81. Petrarch's Love of the Classics 

Francesco Petrarca was born at Arezzo in northern Italy in July, 
1304. His father was a Florentine notary who had been banished by 
the same decree with Dante in 1302, and who finally settled at Avignon 

1 Dante's ideal solution was the harmonious rule of the two powers by 
the acknowledgment of filial relationship between pope and emperor, on 
the basis of a recognition of the different and essentially irreconcilable 
character of their functions. 



Petrarch's love of the classics 463 

in 1313 to practice his profession in the neighborhood of the papal court. 
Petrarch was destined by his father for the law and was sent to study 
that subject at Montpellier and subsequently at Bologna. But from the 
moment when he first got hold of the Latin classics, notably Cicero and 
Vergil, he found his interest in legal subjects absolutely at an end. He 
was charmed by the literary power of the ancients, as he certainly was 
not by the logic and learning of the jurists, and though his father en- 
deavored to discourage what he regarded as a sheer waste of time by 
burning the young enthusiast's precious Latin books, the love of the 
classics, once aroused, was never crushed out and the literary instinct 
remained dominant. The beginnings of the Renaissance spirit, which 
are so discernible in Dante, become in Petrarch the full expression of 
the new age. In the words of Professor Adams, "In him we clearly 
find, as controlling personal traits, all those specific features of the Re- 
naissance which give it its distinguishing character as an intellectual 
revolution, and from their strong beginning in him they have never 
ceased among men. In the first place, he felt as no other man had done 
since the ancient days the beauty of nature and the pleasure of mere 
life, its sufficiency for itself; and he had also a sense of ability and power, 
and a self-confidence which led him to plan great things, and to hope 
for an immortality of fame in this world. In the second place, he had 
a most keen sense of the unity of past history, of the living bond of con- 
nection between himself and men of like sort in the ancient world. That 
world was for him no dead antiquity, but he lived and felt in it and with 
its poets and thinkers, as if they were his neighbors. His love for it 
amounted almost, if we may call it so, to an ecstatic enthusiasm, hardly 
understood by his own time, but it kindled in many others a similar 
feeling which has come down to us. The result is easily recognized in 
him as a genuine culture, the first of modern men in whom this can be 
found. . . . Finally, Petrarch first put the modern spirit into con- 
scious opposition to the mediaeval. The Renaissance meant rebellion 
and revolution. It meant a long and bitter struggle against the whole 
scholastic system, and all the follies and superstitions which flourished 
under its protection. Petrarch opened the attack along the whole line. 
Physicians, lawyers, astrologers, scholastic philosophers, the universities 
— all were enemies of the new learning, and so his enemies. And these 
attacks were not in set and formal polemics alone, his letters and 



464 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

almost all his writings were filled with them. It was the business of 
his life."i 

In the latter part of his life Petrarch enjoyed the highest renown 
throughout Europe. The cities of Italy, especially, vied with one another 
in showering honors upon him. A decree of the Venetian senate af- 
firmed that no Christian poet or philosopher could be compared with him. 
Arezzo, the town of his birth, awarded him a triumphal procession. 
Florence bought the estates once confiscated from his father and begged 
him to accept them as a meager gift to one "who for centuries had no 
equal and could scarcely find one in the ages to come." The climax 
came in 1341 when both the University of Paris and the Roman Senate 
invited him to present himself and receive the poet's crown, in revival 
of an old and all but forgotten ceremony of special honor. The invitation 
from Rome was accejDted and the celebration attending the coronation 
was one of the most splendid of the age. In 1350 Petrarch became 
acquainted with Boccaccio and thenceforth there existed the warmest 
friendship between these two great exponents of Renaissance ideals and 
achievement. In 1369 he retired to Arqua, near Padua, where he died 
in 1374. 

Besides his poems Petrarch wrote a great number of letters, some in 
Latin and some in Italian. Letter- writing was indeed a veritable passion 
with him ; and he not only wrote freely but was careful to preserve copies 
of what he wrote. His prose correspondence has been classified in four 
divisions. The largest one comprises three hundred forty-seven letters, 
written between the years 1332 and 1362, and given the general title of 
De Rebus Familiaribus, because in them only topics presumably of every- 
day interest were discussed and without particular attention to style. 
The second group, the so-called Epistolce Varim, numbers about seventy. 
The third, the Epistolce de Rebus Senilibus ("Letters of Old Age")? in- 
cludes one hundred twenty-four letters written during the last twelve 
years of the poet's life. The fourth, comprising about twenty letters, 
was made up of epistles containing such sharp criticism of the papal 
regime at Avignon that the author thought it best to suppress the names 
of those to whom they were addressed. Their general designation, 
therefore, is Epistolce sine Titulo. The following passages are taken from 
a letter found in the Epistolce Varice. It was written to a literary friend, 

1 George B. Adams, Mediceval Civilization (New York, 1904), pp. 375-377. 



pi^trarch's love of the classics 465 

August 18, 1360, while Petrarch was at Milan, uncertain whither the polit- 
ical storms of the period would finally drive him. Iii the portion which 
precedes that given below the writer has been commenting on various 
invitations which had reached him from friends in Padua, Florence, 
and even beyond the Alps. This gives him occasion to lament the 
unsettled conditions of his times and to voice the longing of the scholar 
for peace and quiet. Thence he proceeds to speak of matters which 
reveal in an interesting way his passionate love for the beauties of classical 
literature and his sympathy with its dominant ideas. Cicero was his 
favorite Latin author; after him, Vergil and Ovid. Greek literature, 
unfortunately, it was impossible for him to know at first hand. In spite 
of a lifelong desire, and at least one determined effort (which is referred 
to in the letter below), he never acquired even a rudimentary reading 
knowledge of the Greek language. At best he could only read fragments 
of Homer, Plato, and Aristotle in extremely faulty Latin translations.-'^ 



Source— Franciscus Petrarca, Epistolce de Rebus Familiarihus et Varice 
["Letters of Friendly Intercourse, and Miscellaneous Letters"], 
edited by J. Fracassetti (Florence, 1869), Vol. III., pp. 364-371. 
Adapted from translation in Merrick Whitcomb, Source Book of 
the Italian Renaissance (Philadelphia, 1903), pp. 14-21 passim. 

If you should ask me, in the midst of these opinions of my 
friends, what I myself think of the matter, I can only reply that 
I long for a place where solitude, leisure, repose, and silence 
reign, however far from wealth and honors, power and favors. 
But I confess I know not where to find it. My own secluded 
nook, where I have hoped not only to live, but even to die, has 
lost all the advantages it once possessed, even that of safety. 
Petrarch's I call to witness thirty or more volumes, which 

iTafrinT I left t^- recently, thinking that no place 

seclusion could be more secure, and which, a little later, 

having escaped from the hands of robbers and returned, against 

1 "There was no apparatus for the study of Greek at that time. Oral 
instruction from Greek or Byzantine scholars was the only possible means 
of access to the great writers of the past. Such instruction was difficult to 
secure, as Petrarch's efforts and failure prove." — Robinson and Rolfe, 
Petrarch, p. 237. 

Med. Hist.— 30 



466 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

all hope, to their master, seem yet to blanch and tremble and 

show upon their foreheads the troubled condition of the place 

whence they have escaped. Therefore I have lost all hope of 

revisiting this charming retreat, this longed-for country spot. 

Still, if the opportunity were offered me, I should seize it with 

both hands and hold it fast. I do not know whether I still 

possess a glimmer of hope, or am feigning it for self-deception, 

and to feed my soul's desire with empty expectation. 

But I proceed, remembering that we had much conversation on 

this point last year, when we lived together in the same house, in 

this very city [Milan]; and that after having examined the matter 

most carefully, in so far as our light permitted, we came to the 

conclusion that while the affairs of Italy, and of Europe, remain 

in this condition, there is no place safer and better for my 

needs than Milan, nor any place that suits me so well. We 

made exception only of the city of Padua, whither I went 

_. , , - shortly after and whither I shall soon return; 
Drawbacks of -^ ' 

even Milan not that I may obliterate or diminish — that I 
should not wish — but that I may soften the 
regret which my absence causes the citizens of both places. I 
know not whether you have changed your opinion since that 
time; but for me I am convinced that to exchange the tumult 
of this great city and its annoyances for the annoyances of 
another city would bring me no advantage, perhaps some in- 
convenience, and beyond a doubt, much fatigue. Ah, if this 
tranquil solitude, which, in spite of all my seeking, I never 
find, as I have told you, should ever show itself on any side, 
you will hear, not that I have gone, but that I have flown, to 
it. . . . 

In the succeeding paragraph of your letter you jest with much 
elegance, saying that I have been wounded by Cicero without 
having deserved it, on account of our too great intimacy.^ 

iThis is a humorous allusion to the fact that Petrarch had recently re- 
ceived an injury from the fall of a heavy volume of Cicero's Letters. 



Petrarch's love of the classics 467 

"Because," you say, "those who are nearest to us most often 

injure us, and it is extremely rare that an Indian does an injury 

Common ^^ ^ Spaniard." True it is. It is on this account 

indifference that in reading of the wars of the Athenians 
to people and , ^ , , . , • , 

events near at and Lacedaemonians, and m contemplatmg the 

troubles of our own people with our neighbors, 
we are never struck with astonishment ; still less so at the sight 
of the civil wars and domestic troubles which habit has made 
of so little account that concord itself would more easily cause 
surprise. But when we read that the king of Scythia has come 
to blows with the king of Egypt, and that Alexander of Mace- 
donia has penetrated to the ends of India, we experience a sensa- 
tion of astonishment which the reading of our histories, filled 
as they are with the deeds of Roman bravery in their distant 
expeditions, does not afford. You bring me consolation, in 
representing me as having been wounded by Cicero, to whom I 
am fondly attached, a thing that would probably never happen 
to me, at the hands of either Hippocrates ^ or Albumazar.^ . . 
You ask me to lend you the copy of Homer that was on sale at 
Padua, if, as you suppose, I have purchased it (since, you say, I 
have for a long time possessed another copy) so that our friend 

- ^ Leo ^ may translate it from Greek into Latin 

A request -^ 

for a copy for your benefit and for the benefit of our other 

studious compatriots. I saw this book, but 
neglected the opportunity of acquiring it, because . it seemed 
inferior to my own. It can easily be had with the aid of the 
person to whom I owe my friendship with Leo; a letter from 
that source would be all-powerful in the matter, and I will my- 
self write him. 

If by chance the book escape us, which seems to be very 
unlikely, I will let you have mine. I have been always fond of 
this particular translation and of Greek literature in general, 

1 A renowned Greek physician of the fifth century b. c. 

2 A famous Arabian astronomer of the ninth century a. d. 

3 Leo Pilatus, a translator. 



468 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

and if fortune had not frowned upon my beginnings, in the sad 
death of my excellent master, I should be perhaps to-day some- 
_ , thing more than a Greek still at his alphabet. I 

for Greek approve with all my heart and strength your 

enterprise, for I regret and am indignant that an 
ancient translation, presumably the work of Cicero, the com- 
mencement of which Horace inserted in his Ars Poetica,^ should 
have been lost to the Latin world, together with many other 
works. It angers me to see so much solicitude for the bad and 
so much neglect of the good. But what is to be done? We 
must be resigned. . . . 

I wish to take this opportunity of warning you of one thing, 
lest later on I should regret having passed it over in silence. 
If, as you say, the translation is to be made literally in prose, 
listen for a moment to the opinion of St. Jerome as expressed in 
his preface to the book, De T emporibus , by Eusebius of Csesarea, 
which he translated into Latin.^ Here are the very words of this 
great man, well acquainted with these two languages, and indeed 
with many others, and of special fame for his art of translating: 
Difficulty If any one, he says, refuses to believe that transla- 

wor^s^ofUt^^ ^'^^^ ^^^^^''^^ ^^^ peculiar charm of the original, let 
erature him render Homer into Latin, word for word; I 

will say further, let him translate it into prose in his own tongue, 
and he will see a ridiculous array and the most eloquent of poets 
transformed into a stammerer. I tell you this for your own good, 
while it is yet time, in order that so important a work may not 
prove useless. As for me, I wish the work to be done, whether 

1 Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 b. c), one of the literary lights of the 
Augustan Age, was a younger contemporary of Cicero. His Ars Poetica was 
a didactic poem setting forth the correct principles of poetry as an art. 

2 Eusebius:, bishop of Cesarrea in Palestine, is noted chiefly as the author 
of an Ecclesiastical History which is in luany ways our most important source 
of information on the early Christian Church. He lived about 250-339. St. 
Jerome was a great Church father of the later fourth century. His name is 
most commonly associated with the translation of the Bible from the original 
Hebrew and Greek into the Latin language. The resulting form of the 
Scriptures was the Editio Vulgata (the Edition Commonly Received), 
whence our English term "Vulgate." 



Petrarch's letter to posterity 469 

well or ill. I am so famished for literature that just as he who is 

ravenously hungry is not inclined to quarrel with the cook's 

art, so I await with a lively impatience whatever dishes are to be 

set before my soul. And in truth, the morsel in which the same 

Leo, translating into Latin prose the beginning of Homer, has 

_ . „ given me a foretaste of the whole work, although 

the transla- it confirms the sentiment of St. Jerome, does not 
tion of Homer ,. , t^ ■ e ^ , ^ 

displease me. it possesses, m tact, a secret charm, 

as certain viands, which have failed to take a moulded shape, 
although they are lacking in form, preserve nevertheless their 
taste and odor. May he continue with the aid of Heaven, and 
may he give us Homer, who has been lost to us! 

In asking of me the volume of Plato which I have with me, 
and which escaped the fire at my transalpine country house, 
you give me proof of your ardor, and I shall hold this book at 
. , » your disposal, whenever the time shall come. 

volume of I wish to aid with all my power such noble enter- 

prises. But beware lest it should be unbecoming 
to unite in one bundle these two great princes of Greece, lest 
the weight of these two spirits should overwhelm mortal shoulders. 
Let your messenger undertake, with God's aid, one of the two, 
and first him who has written many centuries before the other. 
Farewell. 

82. Petrarch's Letter to Posterity 

The following is a letter of Petrarch addressed, by a curious whim, to 
Posterity. It gives an excellent idea of the poet's opinion of himself and 
reveals the sort of things that interested the typical man of culture in 
the early Renaissance period. It is supposed to have been written in 
the year 1370, when Petrarch had completed the sixty-sixth year of 
his life. The letter betrays a longing for individual fame which was 
common in classical times and during the Renaissance, but not in the 
Middle Ages. 



470 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

Source — Franciscus Feirarca, Epistolce de Rebus Familiaribus et Varice ["Let- 
ters of Friendly Intercourse, and Miscellaneous Letters"], edited by 
J. Fracassetti (Florence, 1869), Vol. I., pp. 1-11. Translated in 
James H. Robinson and Henry W. Rolfe, Petrarch, the First Modern 
Scholar and Man of Letters (New York, 1898), pp. 59-76 passim. 

Francis Petrarch, to Posterity, greeting: 

It is possible that some word of me may have come to you, 
though even this is doubtful, since an insignificant and obscure 
name will scarcely penetrate far in either time or space. If, 
however, you should have heard of me, you may desire to know 
what manner of man I was, or what was the outcome of my 
labors, especially those of which some description or, at any 
rate, the bare titles may have reached you. 

To begin, then, with myself. The utterances of men concern- 
ing me will differ widely, since in passing judgment almost every 
one is influenced not so much by truth as by preference, and good 
and evil report alike know no bounds. I was, in truth, a poor 
Petrarch's mortal like yourself, neither very exalted in my 

early life origin, nor, on the other hand, of the most hum- 

ble birth, but belonging, as Augustus Caesar says of himself, 
to an ancient family. As to my disposition, I was not naturally 
perverse or wanting in modesty, however the contagion of evil 
associations may have corrupted me. 

My youth was gone before I realized it; I was carried away by 
the strength of manhood. But a riper age brought me to my 
senses and taught me by experience the truth I had long before 
read in books, that youth and pleasure are vanity — nay, that 
the Author of all ages and times permits us miserable mortals, 
puffed up with emptiness, thus to wander about, until finally, 
coming to a tardy consciousness of our sins, we shall learn to 
know ourselves. 

In my prime I was blessed with a quick and active body, al- 
Physical though not exceptionally strong; and while I do 

appearance not lay claim to remarkable personal beauty, I 
was comely enough in my best days. I was possessed of a clear 



Petrarch's letter to posterity 471 

complexion, between light and dark, lively eyes, and for long 
years a keen vision, which, however, deserted me, contrary to 
my hopes, after I reached my sixtieth birthday, and forced 
me, to my great annoyance, to resort to glasses.^ Although I had 
previously enjoyed perfect health, old age brought with it the 
usual array of discomforts. 

My parents were honorable folk, Florentine in their origin, of 
medium fortune, or, I may as well admit it, in a condition verging 
upon poverty. They had been expelled from their native city,^ 
and consequently I was born in exile, at Arezzo, in the year 1304 
of this latter age, which begins with Christ's birth, July the 20th, 
on a Monday, at dawn. I have always possessed an extreme 
contempt for wealth; not that riches are not desirable in them- 
selves, but because I hate the anxiety and care which are in- 
variably associated with them. I certainly do not long to be 
able to give gorgeous banquets. I have, on the contrary, led a 
p „ „ happier existence with plain living and ordinary 

plain and sen- fare than all the followers of Apicius,^ with their 
elaborate dainties. So-called convivia, which 
are but vulgar bouts, sinning against sobriety and good manners, 
have always been repugnant to me. I have ever felt that it was 
irksome and profitless to invite others to such affairs, and not 
less so to be bidden to them myself. On the other hand, the 
pleasure of dining with one's friends is so great that nothing 
has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival, 
nor have I ever willingly sat down to table without a companion. 
Nothing displeases me more than display, for not only is it bad 

1 Eyeglasses were but beginning to come into use in Petrarch's day. 

2 Petrarch's father and Dante were banished from Florence upon the same 
day, January 27, 1302 [see p. 446]. 

3 Marcus Gavius Apicius was a celebrated epiciu'e of the time of Augustus 
and Tiberius. He was the author of a famous cook-book intended for the 
gratification of high-livers. Though worth a fortune, he was haunted by a 
fear of starving to death and eventually poisoned himself to escape such a 
fate. There was another Apicius in the third century who compiled a 
well-known collection of recipes for cooking, in ten books, entitled De Re 
Coquinaria. It is not quite clear which Apicius Petrarch had in mind. 



472 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 

in itself and opposed to humility; but it is troublesome and dis- 
tracting. 

In my familiar associations with kings and princes, and in 
my friendship with noble personages, my good fortune has been 
such as to excite envy. But it is the cruel fate of those who 
Intimacy with ^^® growing old that they can commonly only 
renowned men weep for friends who have passed away. The 
greatest kings of this age have loved and courted me. They 
may know why; I certainly do not. With some of them I was 
on such terms that they seemed in a certain sense my guests 
rather than I theirs; their lofty position in no way embarrassing 
me, but, on the contrary, bringing with it many advantages. 
I fled, however, from many of those to whom I was greatly at- 
tached; and such was my innate longing for liberty that I 
studiously avoided those whose very name seemed incompaitible 
with the freedom that I loved. 

I possessed a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect — 
one prone to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but es- 
pecially inclined to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. 
The latter, indeed, I neglected as time went on, and took de- 
light in sacred literature. Finding in that a hidden sweetness 
which I had once esteemed but lightly, I came to regard the 
works of the poets as only amenities. 

Among the many subjects that interested me, I dwelt es- 
pecially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me, 
Admiration ^^ that, had it not been for the love of those 
for antiquity (^g^r to me, I should have preferred to have been 
born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my 
own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit 
in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history. The 
conflicting statements troubled me, but when in doubt I ac- 
cepted what appeared most probable, or yielded to the authority 
of the writer. 

My style, as many claimed, was clear and forcible; but to 



Petrarch's letter to posterity 473 

me it seemed weak and obscure. In ordinary conversation with 
friends, or with those about me, I never gave tliought to my lan- 
guage, and I have always wondered that Augustus Csesar should 
Attitude to- have taken such pains in this respect. When, 
ward liter- however, the subject itself, or the place or the 

listener, seemed to demand it, I gave some at- 
tention to style, with what success I cannot pretend to say; 
let them judge in whose presence I spoke. If only I have lived 
well, it matters little to me how I talked. Mere elegance of 
language can produce at best but an empty renown. . . 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

FORESHADOWINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

83. The Reply of Wyclif to the Summons of Pope Urban VI. (1384) 

The fourteenth century was an era of religious decline in England, . 
as indeed more or less generally throughout western Europe. The pa- 
pacy was at its lowest ebb, unable to command either respect or obedi- 
ence, except among the clergy and certain of the common people ; bishops 
and abbots had grown wealthy and worldly and were often utterly neg- 
lectful of their religious obligations; and among the masses the serv- 
ices of worship had frequently become mere hollow formalities. There 
were still many good men in the Church, men who in an unpretentious 
way sought to do their duty faithfully; but of large numbers — possibly 
the majority — of both the higher and lower clergy this could not be said. 
The dissatisfaction of the people with industrial conditions which 
prompted the uprising of 1381 was accompanied by an almost equal 
discontent with the shortcomings of the selfish and avaricious clergy. 
It was harder, of course, to arouse men to an active hostility to the 
existing ecclesiastical system than to the industrial regime, because the 
Church still maintained a very close hold upon the sentiments and at- 
tachments of the average individual. Still, there were people here and 
there who were outspoken for reform, and chief among these was John 
Wyclif. 

Wyclif was born in Yorkshire about 1320 and was educated at Oxford, 
where in time he became a leading teacher. He was one of those who 
saw clearly the evils of the times and did not lack the courage to speak 
out plainly against them. As early as 1366 he had denounced the claims 
of the papacy, in a pamphlet, De Dominio Divino, declaring that the 
pope ought to have no authority whatsoever over states and govern- 
ments. This position he- never yielded and it became one of the cardinal 
features of his teaching. He attacked the clergy for their wealth, their 
self-seeking, and their subservience to the pope, and hurled denunciation 

474 



SUMMONS OF POPE URBAN VI. 475 

at the whole body of friars and vendors of indulgences with whom Eng- 
land was thronged. He even assailed the doctrines of the Church, 
particularly as to transubstantiation, the efficacy of confession to priests, 
and the nature of the sacraments. His teachings were very acceptable to 
large numbers of people who were disgusted with existing conditions, 
and hence he soon came to have a considerable body of followers, known 
as the Lollards, who, though not regularly organized into a sect, carried 
on in later times the work which Wyclif and his " poor priests " had begun. 
In 1377 Pope Gregory XI. issued a bull in which he roundly condemned 
Wyclif and reproved the University of Oxford for not taking active steps 
to suppress the growing heresy; but it had little or no effect. In 1378 
Gregory died and two popes were elected to succeed him — Clement VII. 
at Avignon and Urban VI. at Rome [see p. 389]. The Schism that 
resulted prevented further action for a time against Wyclif. In England, 
however, the uprising of 1381 aroused the government to the expediency 
of suppressing popular agitators, and in a church council at London, 
May 19, 1382, Wyclif's doctrines were formally condemned. In 1383 
Oxford was compelled to banish all the Lollards from her walls and by 
the time of Wyclif's death in 1384 the new belief seemed to be pretty 
thoroughly suppressed. In reality it lived on by the more or less secret 
attachment of thous^ids of people to it, and became one of the great 
preparatory forces for the English Reformation a century and a half 
later. The document given below is a modernized version of a letter 
written by Wyclif to Pope Urban VI. in 1384 in response to a summons 
to appear at Rome to be tried for heresy. The letter was written in 
Latin and the English translation (given below) prepared by the writer's 
followers for distribution among Englishmen represents somewhat of an 
enlargement of the original document. When Wyclif wrote the letter 
he was in the last year of his life and was so disabled by paralysis that 
a journey to Rome was quite impossible. 



Source — ^Text in Thom'as Arnold, Select English Works of John Wyclif 
(Oxford, 1869), Vol. III., pp. 504-506. Adapted, with modernized 
spelling, in Guy Carleton Lee, Source Book of English History (New 
York, 1900), pp. 212-214. 

I have joyfully to tell what I hold, to all true men that be- 
lieve, and especially to the pope; for I suppose that if my faith be 



476 FOEESHADOWINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

rightful and given of God, the pope will gladly confirm it; and 
if my faith be error, the pope will wisely amend it. 

I suppose over this that the gospel of Christ be heart of the 
corps [body] of God's law; for I believe that Jesus Christ, that 
gave in His own person this gospel, is very God and very man, 
and by this heart passes all other laws. 

I suppose over this that the pope be most obliged to the 

keeping of the gospel among all men that live here; for the pope is 

„, , highest vicar that Christ has here in earth. For 

The pope's ° 

high obUga- moreness of Christ's vicar is not measured by 
worldly moreness, but by this, that this vicar 
follows more Christ by virtuous living; for thus teacheth the 
gospel, that this is the sentence of Christ. 

And. of this gospel I take as believe, that Christ for time that 
He walked here, was most poor man of all, both in spirit and in 
having [possessions]; for Christ says that He had nought for to 
rest His head on. And Paul says that He was made needy for 
Christ's earthly our love. And more poor might no man be, 
poverty neither bodily nor in spirit. And thus Christ put 

from Him all manner of worldly lordship. For the gospel of John 
telleth that when they would have made Christ king, He fled 
and hid Him from them, for He would none such worldly highness. 

And over this I take it as believe, that no man should follow 

the pope, nor no saint that now is in heaven, but in as much as he 

[the pope] follows Christ. For John and James erred when they 

„ „ coveted worldly highness; and Peter and Paul 

How far men -^ ° ' 

ought to fol- sinned also when they denied and blasphemed 
in Christ; but men should not follow them in 
this, for then they went from Jesus Christ. And this I take as 
wholesome counsel, that the pope leave his worldly lordship to 
The pope ex- worldly lords, as Christ gave them, — and more 
up'^tlmporil^^ speedily all his clerks [clergy] to do so. For 
authority thus did Christ, and taught thus His disciples, 

till the fiend [Satan] had blinded this world. And it seems 



SUMMONS OF POPE URBAN VI. 477 

to some men that clerks that dwell lastingly in this error against 
God's law, and flee to follow Christ in this, been open heretics, 
and their fautors [supporters] been partners. 

And if I err in this sentence, I will meekly be amended [cor- 
rected], yea, by the death, if it be skilful [necessary], for that I 
hope were good to me. And if I might travel in mine own person, 
I would with good will go to the pope. But God has needed me 
to the contrary, and taught me more obedience to God than to 
men. And I suppose of our pope that he will not be Antichrist, 
and reverse Christ in this working, to the contrary of Christ's 
will; for if he summon against reason, by him or by any of his, 
The pope ^^^ pursue this unskilful summoning, he is an 

should not de- open Antichrist. And merciful intent excused 

mand what is 

contrary to the not Peter, that Christ should not clepe [call] him 

ivme wi Satan; so blind intent and wicked counsel ex- 

cuses not the pope here; but if he ask of true priests that they 
travel more than they may, he is not excused by reason of God, 
that he should not be Antichrist. For our belief teaches us that 
our blessed God suffers us not to be tempted more than we may; 
how should a man ask such service? And therefore pray we to 
God for our Pope Urban the Sixth, that his old [early] holy intent 
be not quenched by his enemies. And Christ, that may not lie, 
says that the enemies of a man been especially his home family; 
and this is sooth of men and fiends. 



INDEX 



[Note — The numbers refer to pages.] 



Aachen, Charlemagne's capital, 108, 
110; basilica at, 113; assembly at, 
119; capitulary for the missi 
promulgated from, 135; in terri- 
tory assigned to Lothair, 155. 

Abbeville, English and French ar- 
mies at, 427. 

Abbo, account of siege of Paris, 
165, 168-171. 

Abbot, character and duties of, de- 
fined in Benedictine Rule, 84-86. 

Abelard, at Paris, 340. 

Abu-Bekr, Mohammed's successor, 
97. 

Acta Sanctorum, quoted, 256-258. 

Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, 
177; speech at Senhs, 178-179; 
urges election as true basis of 
Frankish kingship, 179; opposes 
candidacy of Charles of Lower 
Lorraine, 179-180; speaks in be- 
half of Hugh Capet, 180. 

Adrianople, battle of, importance, 
37-38; described by Ammianus 
MarceUinus, 38-41. 

yEgidius, "king of the Romans," 
50-51. 

iElfthryth, daughter of Alfred the 
Great, 187. 

Agincourt, English victory at, 440. 

Agius, bishop of Orleans, 167. 

Agriculture among the early Ger- 
mans, 21 ', 29. 

Aids, nature of, 222; defined by 
Norman custom, 222-223; speci- 
fied in Great Charter, 306-307. 

Ain Tulut, battle of, 317. 

Aix-la-Chapelle (see Aachen). 

Alaf [Alavivus], a Visigothic chief- 
tain, 34. 



Alaric, king of the Visigoths, 51; 
Syagrius takes refuge with, 51; 
delivers Syagrius to Clovis, 51; 
interview with Clovis, 54r-55; 
defeated and slain by Clovis near 
Poitiers, 56. 

Albar, 201. 

Alcuin, brought to Charlemagne's 
court, 113; in the Palace School, 
144. 

Alemanni, defeated by Clovis at 
Strassburg, 53. 

Alessandria, founded, 399. 

Alexander II., approves William 
the Conqueror's project to in- 
vade England, 234. 

Alexander III., 399. 

Alexander V., elected pope, 390. 

Alexius Comnenus, appeals to Ur- 
ban II., 283. 

Alfonso XL, of Castile, 421. 

Alfred the Great, biography by 
Asser, 181; becomes king of the 
English, 182; fights the Danes at 
Wilton, 182; constructs a navy, 
183; defeats Danes at Swanwich, 
183; in refuge at Athelney, 184; 
meets English people at Egbert's 
stone, 184; defeats Danes at 
Ethandune, 184; peace of Guth- 
rum and, 185; negotiates treaty 
of Wedmore, 185; interest in 
education, 185; literary activity, 
186, 193; care for his children, 
187; varied pursuits, 187; piety, 
188; regret at lack of educa- 
tion, 189; search for learned 
men, 190-191; letter to Bishop 
Werfrith, 191-194; laws, 194- 
195. 



479 



480 



mDEX 



Alith, mother of St. Bernard, 251- 
252. 

Alp Arslan, defeats Eastern em- 
peror at Manzikert, 282. 

Amalric, king of the Visigoths, 56. 

Amboise, 55. 

Ammianus MarceUinus, author of a 
Roman History, 34; facts con- 
cerning hfe, 34; quoted, 34-37, 
38-41, 43-46. 

Amusements, of the early Ger- 
mans, 30-31. 

Anagni, Boniface VIII. taken cap- 
tive at, 385. 

Angelo, companion of St. Francis, 
363. 

Angers, Northmen at, 167. 

Angilbert, a Carolingian poet, 151. 

Angouleme, captured by Clovis, 
56-57. 

Annates Bertiniani, scope, 165; 
quoted, 156, 165-168. 

Annales Laureshamensis, quoted, 
132-133. 

Annales Laurissenses Minores, 
quoted, 106-107. 

Annales Xantenses, quoted, 158- 
163. 

Annals, origin and character of, 
157-158. 

Annates, defined, 389. 

Antioch, crusaders awive at, 293; 
siege and capture of, 293-296. 

Apicius, Marcus Gavius, 471. 

Arabs, overrun Syria, 282. 

Arezzo, Petrarch born at, 461, 464, 
471. 

Arianism, adopted by Germans, 50; 
refuted by ordeal of hot water, 
198-200. 

Aristotle, Dante cites, 460. 

Aries, Council of, 72. 

Armagnacs, in later Hundred 
Years' War, 440. 

Armenia, crusaders in, 293. 

Arnold Atton, forfeiture of fief, 
227-228. 

Arnold of Bonneval, 251. 

Arpent, a land measure, 129. 



Arras, treaty of, 439. 

Arteveld, James van, connection 
with Hundred Years' War, 422. 

Articles of the Barons, relation to 
the Great Charter, 304. 

Asnapium, inventory of, 127-129. 

Assam, conquered by the crusaders, 
293. 

Assembly, the German, 26-27; the 
Saxon, 123. 

Asser, biography of Alfred the 
Great, 181, 186. 

Assisi, birth-place of St. Francis, 
362-363. 

Athanaric, a Visigothic chieftain, 
33-34. 

Athelney, Alfred in refuge at, 184. 

Augustine, sent to Britain by Pope 
Gregory, 72-73; constituted ab- 
bot, 74; lands at Thanet, 75; 
preaches to King Ethelbert, 76; 
life at Canterbury, 77. 

Augustus, 32. 

Aurelian, cedes Dacia to the Vis- 
igoths, 33. 

Ausculta Fill, issued by Boni- 
face VIII., 384. 

Auvillars, forfeited by Arnold At- 
ton, 227. 

Avignon, popes resident at, 389. 

Aylesford, Horsa slain in battle at, 
71. 

Babylon (Cairo), St. Louis ad- 
vances on, 318. 

Babylonian Captivity, begins, 385, 
389. 

Ban, of the emperor, 138. 

Basel, Council of, 391, 393. 

Battle Abbey, founded by William 
the Conqueror, 242. 

Baugulf, Charlemagne's letter to, 
145-148. 

Bavaria, annexed to Charlemagne's 
kingdom, 115. 

Bayeux, Odo, bishop of, impris- 
oned, 243. 

Beatrice, Dante's love affair with, 
446. 



INDEX 



481 



Beauchamp, William de, 302. 

Beaumont, birth of Froissart at, 
418. 

Bede, facts regarding life of, 68; 
"Ecclesiastical History of the 
English People," 68; account of 
the Saxon invasion, 69-72; ac- 
count of Augustine's mission to 
Britain, 73-77. 

Bedford, castle of, English barons 
at, 301-302. 

Bellona, Roman goddess of war, 39. 

Benedict XIII., deposed from pa- 
pacy, 391. 

Benedictine Rule, nature and pur- 
pose, 84; translation of, 84; 
quoted, 84-90; character and 
duties of the abbot, 84-86, 89; 
the monks to be called in coun- 
cil, 87; the Rule always to be 
obeyed, 87; monks to own no 
property individually, 87-88 ; 
daily manual labor, 88; reading 
during Lent, 89; hospitality, 89. 

Benefice, origin and development, 
206; relation to vassalage, 207; 
example of grant, 207-210. 

Beowulf, 188. 

Bernardone, Pietro, father of St. 
Francis, 363. 

Bernardus Clarmvallensis (by Wil- 
liam of St. Thierry), quoted, 251- 
256, 258-260. 

Berno, abbot of Cluny, 248. 

Bertha, queen of Kent, 72, 75. 

Bertha, daughter of Charlemagne, 
151. 

Biography, character of, in Middle 
Ages, 108. 

Blanche of Castile, mother of St. 
Louis, 311, 313-314. 

Boccaccio, Petrarch's acquaintance 
with, 464. 

Boethius, 186. 

Bohemia, king of, an elector of the 
Empire, 410. 

Bohemians, Louis the German 
makes expedition against, 160- 
161. 

Med. Hist.— 31 



Bohemond of Tarentum, 294-295. 

Bologna, University of, 340. 

Boniface, anoints Pepin the Short, 
107. 

Boniface VIII., conflict with Phihp 

, the Fair, 383-384; issues bull 

Clericis Laicos, 384; issues bull 

Unani Sanctam, 385; death, 385. 

Boulogne, count of, uncle of St. 
Louis, 314. 

Bourges, Pragmatic Sanction of, 
promulgated, 394; quoted, 395- 
397. 

Bouvines, King John's defeat at, 
297, 403. . 

Brackley, English barons meet at, 
300. 

Bretigny, treaty of, negotiated, 
439; provisions of, 441-442. 

Britain, Saxon invasion of, 68-72; 
shores infested by Angle and 
Saxon seafarers, 68; Roman 
garrisons withdrawn from, 68; 
Saxons invited into, 69; Saxon 
settlement in, 70; Saxons con- 
quer, 71-72; Christianity in, 72; 
Augustine sent to, 73-74; con- 
version of Saxon population be- 
gins, 75-77. 

Britons, menaced by Picts and 
Scots, 68; decide to call in the 
Saxons, 68-69; conquered by 
the Saxons, 71-72; early Chris- 
tianization of, 72. 

Brittany, Northmen in, 166. 

Brussels, conference at, 422-423. 

Buchonian Forest, 57, 58. 

Burchard, bishop of Chartres, 
167. 

Burgundians, faction in Hundred 
Years' War, 440. 

Caesar, Julius, describes the Ger- 
mans in his " Commentaries," 
19-22; conquest of Gaul, 19, 32. 

Calais, treaty of Bretigny revised 
at, 439-440. 

Calixtus II., concessions made by, 
in Concordat of Worms, 279-280. 



482 



INDEX 



Camargue, Northmen establish 
themselves at, 168. 

Campus Martius, 52; Merovingian 
kings at, 106-107. 

Cannse, battle of, 41. 

Canossa, Henry IV. arrives at, 274; 
Henry IV. 's penance at, 276; 
oath talcen by Henry IV. at, 
277-278. 

Canterbury, capital of Kent, 76; 
life of Augustine's band at, 77; 
Plegmund archbishop of, 190; 
Christchurch monastery built at, 
242. 

Capellmii, functions of, 190. 

Capitulare Missorum Generals, pro- 
mulgated by Charlemagne, 135; 
scope, 135; translation of, 135; 
quoted, 135-141; character and 
functions of the missi, 135-137; 
new oath to Charlemagne as 
emperor, 137; administration of 
justice, 138-139; obligations of 
the clergy, 139; murder, 140. 

Capitulary, Charlemagne's con- 
cerning the Saxon territory, 118- 
123; nature of, 119-120; Charle- 
magne's concerning the royal 
domains, 124-127; Charlemagne's 
for the missi, 134-141 ; nature of, 
in ninth century, 174; Carlo- 
man's concerning the preserva- 
tion of order, 174-176. 

Capitulum Saxonicum, issued by 
Charlemagne, 119. 

Cappadocia, crusaders in, 293. 

Cardinals, college of, instituted, 
269; and Great Schism, 389- 
391. 

Carloman, capitulary concerning 
the preservation of order, 174- 
176; functions of the missi, 173; 
obligations of officials, 176. 

Carmina Burana, source for me- 
diaeval students' songs, 352. 

Carolingians, origin of, 105-106 
age of Charlemagne, 108-148 
disorders in reigns of, 149-163 
menaced by Norse invasions, 



163-173; efforts to preserve or- 
der, 173-176; growing inability 
to cope with conditions, 174; 
replaced by Capetian dynasty, 
177-180. 

Carthusians, 246. 

Castellanerie, defined, 216. 

Celestine III., 381. 

Gens, payment of, in Lorris, 328. 

Gensus, 209. 

Gentenarius, functions of, 176. 

Chalcedon, Council of, 80. 

Chalons-sur-Saone, immunity of 
monastery at, confirmed by 
Charlemagne, 212-214. 

Champagne, county of, 215; Join- 
ville's residence in, 312. 

Charibert, 75. 

Charlemagne, employs Einhard at 
court, 108; biography of, 109; 
personal appearance, 109-110; 
manner of dress, 111; fondness 
for St. Augustine's De Givitate 
Dei, 111; everyday life, 1 12 ; edu- 
cation, 112-113; interest in re- 
ligion, 113; charities, 114; pohcy 
of Germanic consolidation, 115; 
conquers Lombardy, Bavaria, 
and the Spanish March, 115; war 
with the Saxons, 115-118; trans- 
plants Saxons into Gaul, 117- 
118; peace with Saxons, 118; 
issues capitularies concerning 
the Saxon territory, 119; capitu- 
lary concerning the royal do- 
mains, 124-127; revenues, 124; 
interest in agriculture, 124; in- 
ventory of a royal estate, 127- 
129; appealed to by Pope Leo 
III., 130; goes to Rome, 130; 
crowned emj^eror by Leo, 130, 
132-134; significance of the coro- 
nation, 131-133; issues capitu- 
lary for the missi, 134: ; new 
oath to, as emperor, 137; provi- 
sions for administration of jus- 
tice, 138-139; legislation for 
clergy, 139-140; letter to Abbot 
Fulrad, 142-144; builds up Pal- 



INDEX 



483 



ace School, 144-145; provides 
for elementary and intermediate 
education, 145; confirms im- 
munity of monastery of Chalons- 
sur-Saone, 212-214. 

Charles Martel, victor at Tours, 105 ; 
Frankish mayor of the palace, 
105; makes office hereditary, 105. 

Charles the Fat, Emperor, 168; 
Odo's mission to, 170-171 ; buys 
off the Northmen, 171; deposi- 
tion and death, 171. 

Charles, son of Charlemagne, 
anointed by Leo, 134. 

Charles the Bald, of France, birth, 
149; combines with Louis against 
Lothair, 150-151 ; takes oath of 
Strassburg, 152-154; lands re- 
ceived by treaty of Verdun, 155- 
156; buys off the Northmen, 159; 
capitularies, 174. 

Charles the Simple, of France, 
yields Normandy to RoUo, 172. 

Charles of Lower Lorraine, claim- 
ant to French throne, 177; can- 
didacy opposed by Adalbero, 
179-180. 

Charles IV., Emperor, founds Uni- 
versity of Prague, 345; pro- 
mulgates Golden Bull, 410. 

Charles IV. (the Fair), of France, 
419. 

Charles VI. of France, 440; and 
the Great Schism, 390. 

Charles VII. of France, convenes 
council at Bourges, 394; dauphin 
of France, 440-441. 

Charles, count of Anjou, 321. 

Charles, of Luxemburg, slain at 
Crecy, 433. 

Charter, conditions of grant to 
towns, 326; of Laon, 327-328; of 
Lorris, 328-330. (Bee Magna 
Charta.) 

Chatillon, St. Bernard educated at, 
252; begins monastic career at, 
254. 

Childebert, conquers Septimania, 
57 



Childeric I., father of Clovis, 50. 

Childeric III., last Merovingian 
king, 105; deposed, 107. 

Chippenham, Danes winter at, 184; 
siege of, 184; treaty of, 185. 

Chronica Majora (by Roger of 
Wendover) , scope of, 298; quoted, 
298-303. 

Chronica Majora (by Matthew 
Paris), value of, 404; quoted, 
405-409. 

Chroniques (by Froissart), charac- 
ter of, 418; quoted, 418-439. 

Church, development of, 78-96; 
origin of papacy, 78-79; Pope 
Leo's sermon on the Petrine 
supremacy, 80-83 ; rise of monas- 
ticism, 83-84; the Benedictine 
Rule, 84-90; papacy of Gregory 
the Great, 90-91; Gregory's de- 
scription of the functions of the 
secular clergy, 91-96; Charle- 
magne's zeal for promotion of, 
113; Charlemagne's extension 
into Saxony, 118-123; influence 
on development of annalistic 
writings, 157; education intrusted 
to, by Charlemagne, 146; to aid 
in suppressing disorder, 175-176; 
illiteracy of English clergy in 
Alfred's day, 190-192; influence 
on use of ordeals, 197; use of 
precarium, 206-207; favored by 
grants of immunity, 210; efforts 
to discourage private warfare, 
228-229; decrees the Peace of 
God, 229; decrees the Truce of 
God, 229; reform through Clu- 
niac movement, 246; conditions 
in St. Bernard's day, 250; Greg- 
ory VII. 's conception of the 
papal authority, 262-264; Greg- 
ory VII. avows purpose to cor- 
rect abuses in, 267; college of 
cardinals instituted, 269; issue of 
lay investiture, 265-278; Con- 
cordat of Worms, 278-281 ; liber- 
ties in England granted in Great 
Charter, 305; patronage of uni- 



484 



INDEX 



versities, 340 ; menaced by abuses, 
360; rise of the mendicant or- 
ders, 360; St. Francis's attitude 
toward, 375, 377-378; use of 
excommunication and interdict, 
380; Unam Sanctam, 383-388; 
Great Schism, 389-390; Council 
of Pisa, 390-391; Council of 
Constance, 391, 393; Pragmatic 
Sanction of Bourges, 393-397; 
decUne in England in fourteenth 
century, 474; Wyclif's efforts to 
regenerate, 475-477. 

Cicero, Dante cites, 451; Pe- 
trarch's reading of, 466. 

Cimbri, 32. 

Cistercians, 246, 250. 

Citeaux, 246; St. Bernard decides 
to join, 252, 254; St. Bernard 
goes forth from, 256. 

Cities (see Towns), Frederick Bar- 
barossa and Lombard, 398-399; 
rights of guaranteed by Peace of 
Constance, 400-402. 

Clairvaux, St. Bernard founds 
monastery at, 256-257; descrip- 
tion of by William of St. Thierry, 
258-260; marvelous works ac- 
complished at;, 259; piety of 
monks at, 259. 

Claudius Claudianus, at the court 
of Honorius, 42; description of 
the Huns, 43. 

Clement VII., elected pope, 389; 
dies, 390. 

Clergy (see Church), Charlemagne's 
general legislation for, 139-140; 
Pope Gregory I.'s exhortation to, 
91-96; Charlemagne's provisions 
for, in Saxony, 120-123; tem- 
poral importance in Charle- 
magne's empire, 141-142; work 
of education committed to by 
Charlemagne, 146; illiteracy in 
Alfred's day, 186, 191-192; 
grants of immunity to, 210-214; 
protected by Peace of God, 230- 
231; worldliness of, in England 
before the Conquest, 239. 



Clericis Laicos, issued by Boniface 
VIII., 384. 

Clermont, Council of, confirms 
Peace and Truce of God, 229; 
Pope Urban's speech at, 283- 
288; first crusade proclaimed at, 
287-288. 

Cloderic, receives deputation from 
Clovis, 57; has his father slain, 
57 ; himself slain, 58. 

Clotilde, wife of Clovis, 49; labors 
for his conversion, 53; calls 
Remigius to the court, 54. 

Clovis, conversion of, 49; becomes 
king of the Salian Franks, 50; 
advances against Syagrius, 51; 
defeats him at Soissons, 51; re- 
quests King Alaric to surrender 
the refugee, 51 ; has Syagrius put 
to death, 51; episode of the 
broken vase, 51-52; decides to 
become a Christian, 53; wins 
battle of Strassburg, 53; bap- 
tized with his warriors, 54; in- 
terview with Alaric, 54-55; re- 
solves to conquer southern Gaul, 
55; campaign against Alaric, 55- 
57; victory at Vouille, 56; takes 
possession of southern Gaul, 56; 
captures Angouleme, 57; sends 
deputation to Cloderic, 57; takes 
Cloderic's kingdom, 58; slays 
Ragnachar and Richar, 58-59; 
death at Paris, 59. 

Cluny, establishment of monastery 
at, 245; growth and influence, 
246; charter issued for, 247-249; 
land and other property yielded 
to, 247-248; Berno to be abbot, 
248; relations with the papacy, 
249; charitable activity, 249. 

Cologne, 57 ; university founded at, 
345. 

Comitahis, among the early Ger- 
mans, 27-28, a prototype of 
vassalage, 205. 

Commendation, defined, • 205; 
Prankish formula for, 205-206. 

Commerce, freedom guaranteed by 



INDEX 



485 



Great Charter, 308-309; encour- 
aged in charter of Lorris, 329. 

Commune (see Towns), 326. 

Compiegne, 171. 

Compurgation, defined, 196. 

Conrad IV., 334. 

Constance, Council of, assembles, 
391 ; declarations of, 393. 

Constance, Peace of, 398-402. 

Constantine, 78. 

Constantine VI., deposed at Con- 
stantinople, 131-132. 

Constantinople, threatened by Sel- 
juk Turks, 282. 

Corbei, 191 ; French barons assem- 
ble at, 314. 

Corvee, provision for in charter of 
Lorris, 330. 

Councils, Church, powers of de- 
clared at Pisa and Constance, 
392-393; provisions for in Prag- 
matic Sanction of Bourges, 396- 
397. 

Count, duties, 123, 134; restrictions 
on by grants of immunity, 211. 

Count of the Palace, 112. 

Crecy, English take position at, 
427-428; French advance to, 427, 
430-431; English prepare for 
battle, 431-432; the French de- 
feated at, 433-436. 

Crime, in the Salic law, 62-65; in 
Charlemagne's De Partibus Sax- 
onicB, 123; in Charlemagne's Ca- 
pitulare Missorum Generate, 140- 
141; Carloman's regulations for 
suppression of, 175-176; in Al- 
fred's legislation, 194-195; pen- 
alties for in Peace and Truce of 
God, 230-232; protection of 
scholars against, 343. 

Crusade, Gregory VII. 's plan for, 
283; Urban II. 's speech in behalf 
of, 284^288; first crusade pro- 
claimed, 287-288; motives for, 
288; starting of the crusaders, 
289-291; letters of crusaders, 
291-292; Stephen of Blois to his 
wife, 292-296; early achieve- 



ments of, 293; of St. Louis to 
Egypt, 313, 318-322. 
Cyprus, St. Louis in, 316; departs 
from, 317. 

Dacia, ceded to the Visigoths, 33. 

Danelaw, 185. 

Danes (see Northmen), earliest 
visits to England, 181; defeat 
Alfred the Great at Wilton, 182; 
winter at Exeter, 183; defeated 
by Alfred at Swanwich, 183; 
winter at Chippenham, 184; de- 
feated by Alfred at Ethandune, 
184; treaties of peace with Al- 
fred, 185. 

Dante, career of, 446; attachment 
to Holy Roman Empire, 446; 
relation to Renaissance, 446- 
447 ; defends Italian as a literary 
language, 447-452 ; conception of 
imperial power, 452-453; De 
Monarchia quoted, 453-462. 

Danube, Visigoths cross, 34-37. 

Dauphine, origin of, 395. 

De Bella Gallico (by Julius Caesar), 
character of, 20; quoted, 20-22; 
used by Tacitus, 23. 

Debt, in the Salic law, 66; collec- 
tion of among students, 342. 

Decime, defined, 389. 

De Civitate Dei (by St. Augustine), 
Charlemagne's regard for. 111. 

De Divortio Lotharii regis et Tet- 
her goe regince (by Hincmar), 
quoted, 200-201. 

De Domino Divino (by Wyclif), 
nature of, 474. 

De Gestis Regum Anglorum. (by 
William of Malmesbury), scope, 
235; quoted, 235-241, 289-290. 

Degrees, university, 340. 

De Litteris Colendis, addressed by 
Charlemagne to Abbot Baugulf, 
145; quoted, 146-148; work of 
education committed to the 
clergy, 146-147; education essen- 
tial to interpretation of Scrip- 
tures, 147. 



486 



INDEX 



Demesne, 125. 

De Monarchia (by Dante), nature 
of, 452-453; quoted, 453-462. 

De odio et dtia, writ of, 307-308. 

De Partibus Saxonioc, capitulary 
issued by Charlemagne, 119; 
quoted, 120-123; churches as 
places of refuge, 120; offenses 
against the Church, 121; penal- 
ties for persistence in paganism, 
122; fugitive criminals, 123; pub- 
lic assemblies, 123. 

De Rebus Familiaribus (by Pe- 
trarch), quoted, 465-473. 

De Rebus Gestis Mlfredi Magni (by 
Asser), quoted, 182-185, 186-191. 

De Temporibus (by Eusebius), 
preface to, cited by Petrarch, 468. 

De Villis, capitulary issued by 
Charlemagne, 124; translation of, 
124; quoted, 124-127; reports to 
be made by the stewards, 125; 
equipment, 125-127; produce 
due the king, 127. 

De Vulgari Eloquentia (by Dante), 
447-448. 

Deusdedit, 262. 

Dictatus Papce, authorship of, 262; 
quoted, 262-264. 

Diedenhofen, Louis, Lothair, and 
Charles meet at, 158. 

Divina Commedia (by Dante), 446. 

Domains, Charlemagne's capitu- 
lary concerning, 124-127; speci- 
men inventory of property, 127- 
129. 

Domesday Survey, 243. 

Dominicans, founded, 360, 

Dordrecht, burned by the North- 
men, 159; again taken, 161. 

Dorset, Danes land in, 181. 

Dorylseum, Turks defeated at, 293. 

Druids, among the Gauls, 20-21. 

Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, 165. 

Easter tables, origin of mediaeval 

annals, 157. 
Eastern Empire, menaced by Sel- 

juk Turks, 282-283, 285. 



Ebolus, abbot of St. Germain des 
Pres, 169-170. 

Edington (see Ethandune). 

Education, decline among the 
Franks, 144-147; Charlemagne's 
provisions for, 145-148; the 
Palace School, 144; decline after 
Charlemagne, 145; entrusted by 
Charlemagne to the clergy, 146; 
Alfred's interest in, 185; of Al- 
fred's children, 187; Alfred's 
labors in behalf of, 189-191; 
Alfred laments decline of, 192; 
universities in the Middle Ages, 
339-359. 

Edward the Elder, son of Alfred 
the Great, 187. 

Edward the Confessor, death of, 
233. 

Edward III., claim to French 
throne, 421 ; takes title of king 
of France, 421-424; wins battle 
of Sluys, 424-427 ; takes position 
at Crecy, 427; prepares for bat- 
tle, 429; defeats French army, 
433-436 ; new invasion of France, 
439 ; concludes treaty of Bretigny, 
439-442. 

Edward, the Black Prince, wins his 
spurs at Crecy, 434-435; be- 
sieges and sacks Limoges, 436- 
439. 

Egbert's stone, Alfred meets Eng- 
lish j^eople at, 184. 

Einhard, describes weakness of 
later Merovingians, 106-107; ca- 
reer of, 108; author of Vita 
Car oil Magni, 109; sketch of 
Charlemagne, 109-114; account 
of the Saxon war, 116-118; 
statement regarding Charle- 
magne's coronation, 133. 

Elbe, German boundary in Charle- 
magne's day, 330. 

Electors, of Holy Roman Empire, 
provisions of Golden Bull re- 
garding, 409-416. 

Ely, bishop of, 300. 

Empire (see Eastern Empire ; Holy 



INDEX 



487 



Roman Empire, and the names 
of emperors). 

England, ravaged by the Danes, 
181; Alfred the Great becomes 
king, 182; Alfred's wars with tlie 
Danes, 182-185; navy founded 
by Alfred, 183; treaty of Wed- 
more, 185; decadence of learn- 
ing, 186; Alfred brings learned 
men to, 190-191; Alfred writes 
to Bishop Werfrith on state of 
learning in, 191-194; William 
the Conqueror's claim to throne 
of, 234; Harold becomes king of, 
234; William the Conqueror pre- 
pares to invade, 234; battle of 
Hastings, 235-238; Saxons and 
Normans, 238-241; William the 
Conqueror's government of, 241- 
244; reign of King John, 297-298; 
the winning of the Great Charter, 
298-303 ; provisions of the Char- 
ter, 305-310; Edward III. claims 
French throne, 421-423; naval 
battle of Sluys, 424-427; battle 
of Crecy, 427-436; the Black 
Prince sacks Limoges, 436-439; 
treaty of Bretigny, 439, 441-442; 
treaty of Troyes, 440, 443; re- 
ligious decline in fourteenth cen- 
tury, 474; Wyclif's career, 474- 
475. 

Epistolce de Rebus Senilibus (by 
Petrarch), 464. 

Epistolce sine Titulo (by Petrarch), 
464. 

Epistolce Varice (by Petrarch), 464. 

Erfurt, University of, founded, 345. 

Etablissements de St. Louis, quoted, 
217, 223-224. 

Ethandune, Alfred defeats Danes 
at, 184. 

Ethelbert, king of Kent, 72; ac- 
cepts Christianity, 73, 77; power 
of, 74 ; receives Augustine, 76 ; en- 
courages missionary effort, 77. 

Ethelred I., king of the English, 

182. 
Ethelstan, of Mercia, 190. 



Ethelwerd, son of Alfred the 

Great, 186. 
Eugene IV., and Comacil of Basel, 

393. 
Eurie, king of the Northmen, 166; 

defeated by Louis the German, 

166. 
Eusebius, author of De Tempori- 

bus, 468. 
Excommunication, nature of, 380; 

of Henry IV. by Gregory VII., 

272 ; of Frederick II. by Gregory 

IX., 406. 
Exeter, Danes winter at, 183, 

Fealty, ceremony of, 216-217; de- 
scribed in an English law book, 
218; rendered to count of Flan- 
ders, 218-219; ordinance of St. 
Louis on, 219. 

Feudalism, importance of, in me- 
diseval history, 203; most per- 
fectly developed in France, 203- 
204; essential elements, 204; 
origins of vassalage, 204-205; 
formula for commendation, 205- 
206 ; development of the benefice, 
206-207; example of grant of a 
benefice, 207-210; origins and 
nature of the immunity, 210- 
211; formula for grant of im- 
munity, 211-212; an immunity 
confirmed by Charlemagne, 212- 
214; nature of the fief, 214; speci- 
men grants of fiefs, 215-216; 
complexity of the system, 216; 
ceremonies of homage and fealty, 
216-217;' homage defined, 217; 
fealty described, 218; homage 
and fealty illustrated, 218-219; 
ordinance of St. Louis on homage 
and fealty, 219; obhgations of 
lords and vassals, 220-221 ; rights 
of the lord, 221-228; aids, 222- 
223; military service involved, 
223-224; wardship and marriage, 
224-225; reliefs, 225-226; for- 
feiture, 226-228; militant char- 
acter of feudal period, 228-229; 



488 



INDEX 



efforts to reduce private war, 
229 ; the Peace and Truce of God, 
229-232; provisions of Great 
Charter concerning, 306-307. 

Fief, relation to benefice, 207; na- 
ture, 214; specimen grants, 215- 
216. 

Fitz- Walter, Robert, besieges cas- 
tle of Northampton, 301. 

Flanders, influence on Htmdred 
Years' War, 419; allied with Ed- 
ward III., 421-423. 

Flanders, William, count of, hom- 
age and fealty to, 218-219. 

Florence, Dante born at, 445. 

Fontaines, St. Bernard born at, 
251. 

Fontenay, Charles and Louis de- 
feat Lothair at, 150. 

Forfeiture, nature, 226-227; case 
of Arnold Atton, 227-228. 

Formula, for commendation, 205- 
206; for grant of a benefice, 207- 
210; for grant of immunity to a 
bishop, 211-212. 

France, Hugh Capet becomes king, 
177-180; geographical extent in 
987, 180; feudalism most per- 
fectly developed in, 203-204; 
over-population of described by 
Pope Urban, 286; in times of 
Louis IX., 311-324; treaty of 
Paris (1229), 322; rise of mu- 
nicipalities in, 325-326 ; interdict 
laid on by Innocent III., 380- 
383; Philip the Fair's contest 
with Boniface VIII., 383-388; 
States General meets, 385; re- 
sponsibility for Great Schism, 
389-390; Pragmatic Sanction of 
Bourges, 393-397; disputed suc- 
cession in 1328, 419-420; Ed- 
ward III. takes title of king, 421- 
423; naval battle of Sluys, 424- 
427; battle of Crecy, 427-436; 
siege and sack of Limoges, 436- 
439; treaty of Bretigny, 439, 
441-442; treaty of Troyes, 440, 
443. 



Francia Occidentalis, 155. 

Francia Orientalis, 155. 

Francia, territorial extent, 152, 
155. 

Francis I., Concordat of, 394. 

Franciscans, founded, 360, 361; 
hfe of St. Francis, 363-373; Rule 
of St. Francis, 373-376; Will of 
St. Francis, 376-378. 

Frankfort, electors of Empire to 
assemble at, 412. 

Franks, conquer northern Gaul, 49; 
become Christians, 49, 54; char- 
acter of conversion, 50; close 
relations with papacy, 50; Clovis 
becomes king of the Salians, 50 
defeat Syagrius at Soissons, 51 
defeat Alaric near Poitiers, 56 
SaHc law, 59-67; decadence of 
Merovingians, 105; rise of Mayor 
of the Palace, 105; early mayors, 
105; Pepin the Short becomes 
king, 105-107; the age of Charle- 
magne, 108-148; the war with 
the Saxons, 114-118; Charle- 
magne's capitularies, 118-127, 
134-141; Charlemagne crowned 
emperor, 130-134; decay of learn- 
ing among, 144; Carolingian 
Renaissance, 144-148; disorder 
among in ninth century, 157- 
163; menaced by invasions of 
Northmen, 160-163; decline of 
monarchy in ninth century, 173; 
rise of feudalism among, 173- 
174. 

Freckenhorst, sacred relics brought 
to, 163. 

Frederick, bishop of Hamburg, 
issues charter for a colony, 332- 
333. 

Frederick Barbarossa, grants privi- 
leges to students and masters, 
341-343; and the Italian com- 
munes, 398-399; destroys Milan, 
399; defeated at Legnano, 399; 
agrees to Peace of Constance, 
399-400. 

Frederick II., accession of, 402- 



INDEX 



489 



403; character, 403-404; sus- 
pected of heresy, 405; excom- 
municated, 406, 408-409. 

Friars, conditions determining rise 
of, 360; unlike monks, 360-361; 
relations with papacy and local 
clergy, 361; system of organiza- 
tion, 361 ; career of St. "Francis, 
362-378; Rule of St. Francis, 
373-376; WiU of St. Francis, 
376-378. 

Fridigern, leader of branch of 
Visigoths, 33-34, 38, 39. 

Friesland (see Frisia). 

Frisia, Northmen in, 159, 162, 166. 

Froissart, Sire de, " Chronicles " of, 
417-418. 

Fulbert of Chartres, letter to Wil- 
liam of Aquitaine, 220-221. 

Fulcher of Chartres, version of 
Pope Urban 's speech, 286; ac- 
count of starting of crusaders, 
290-291. 

Fulda, Einhard educated at, 108, 
145. 

Fulrad, Charlemagne's letter to, 
142-144; summoned to assembly 
at Strassfurt, 143; troops and 
equipment to be brought, 143; 
gifts for the Emperor, 143-144. 

Gaiseric, 112. 

Galicia, Northmen visit, 166. 

Gatinais, 329. 

Gau, 25. 

Gaul, conquered by Julius Csesar, 
19, 32; invaded by Cimbri and 
Teutons, 32; Syagrius's kingdom 
in, 51; the Franks' take posses- 
sion in the north, 51; Clovis 
overthrows Visigothic power in 
south, 55-57; monasteries estab- 
lished in, 83; Charlemagne trans- 
plants Saxons into, 117-118; 
Northmen devastate, 159; sur- 
vival of Roman immunity in, 
210. 

Geoffrey of Clairvaux, 251. 

Germania (by Tacitus), nature and 



purpose, 23; contents, 24; trans- 
lation and editions, 24; quoted, 
24-31. 

Germans, described by Caesar, 19- 
22; rehgion, 21; system of land 
tenure, 21 ; magistrates and war 
leaders, 22; hospitality, 22; de- 
scribed by Tacitus, 23-31; loca- 
tion in Caesar's day, 20; physical 
characteristics, 24; use of iron, 
24; weapons, 24-25; mode of 
fighting, 25-26, 40 ; ideas of mili- 
tary honor, 25, 64; kingship, 26; 
tribal assemblies, 26-27; in- 
vestment with arms, 27; the 
princeps and comitatus, 27, 28; 
love of war, 28-29; agriculture, 
21, 29; life in times of peace, 29; 
absence of tax systems, 29; lack 
of cities and city life, 29 ; villages, 
30; food and drink, 30; amuse- 
ments, 30; slavery, 31 ; early con- 
tact with the Romans, 32-33; 
defeat Varus, 32 ; put Romans on 
the defensive, 32; filter into the 
Empire, 33; invasions begin, 33; 
generally Christianized before in- 
vasion of Empire, 48; character 
of their conversion, 49-50; ideas 
of law, 59-60 ; influenced by con- 
tact with Romans, 60; codifi- 
cation of law, 60; legal ideas 
and methods, 196; compurga- 
tion, 196; use of the ordeal, 196- 
197. 

Germany, Henry IV. 's position in, 
264-265; Henry V.'s government 
of, 278 ; question of lay investi- 
ture in, 265-281 ; colonization 
toward the east, 331-332; colony 
chartered by bishop of Ham- 
burg, 331-333; dechne of im- 
jDerial power, 334; chaotic con- 
ditions, 334; rise of municipal 
leagues, 334; the Rhine League, 
335-338; rise of universities in, 
345; in Frederick Barbarossa's 
period, 398-399; under Freder- 
ick II., 402-409; conditions after 



490 



INDEX 



Frederick II., 409-410; Golden 
Bull of Charles IV., 410-416. 

Genghis Khan, empire of, 316. 

Ghent, Council at, 423-424. 

Gildas, story of Saxon invasion of 
Britain, 68. 

Gillencourt, granted to Jocelyn 
d'Avalon, 216. 

Gisela, 173. 

Gloucester, William the Conqueror 
wears crown at, 242. 

Godfrey of Bouillon, 289. 

Golden Bull, promulgated by 
Charles IV., 409; character of, 
409. 

Gozlin, bishop of Paris, 168. 

Grace expectative, nature of, 396. 

Gratian, 35, 38. 

Great Council, in William the Con- 
queror's time, 242; provisions of 
Great Charter concerning, 306; 
composition, 307. 

Greek fire, nature of, 319; used by 
the Saracens, 319-321. 

Gregory of Nazianzus, cited by 
Pope Gregory, 93. 

Gregory of Tours, facts regarding 
career, 47; author of Ecclesiasti- 
cal History of the Franks, 47-48; 
opportunities for knowledge, 48; 
account of Prankish affairs 
quoted, 50-59; account of or- 
deal by hot water quoted, 198- 
200. 

Gregory I. (the Great), plans con- 
version of Saxons, 72; sends 
Augustine to Britain, 72-73; 
becomes pope, 73, 90; letter of 
encouragement to Augustine's 
band, 74; early career, 90; quali- 
fications, 90-91 ; author of the 
Pastoral Rule, 91 ; describes the 
functions of the secular clerg}^, 
91-96; attitude toward worldly 
learning, 95 ; Pastoral Rule trans- 
lated by Alfred, 186, 193. 

Gregory tV., 158. 

Gregory VI., 261. 

Gregory VII., early career, 261; 



becomes pope, 261, 269; concep- 
tions of papal authority, 262- 
264; breach with Henry IV., 264; 
letter to Henry IV., 265-269; 
claim to authority over temporal 
princes, 266; avows purpose to 
correct abuses in the Church, 
267; disposed to treat Henry IV. 
fairly, 268 ; letter to, from Henry 
IV., 269-272; charges against, by 
Henry IV., 272; deposes him, 
272-273; meets Henry IV. at 
' Canossa, 274, 275 ; absolves him, 
276; project for a crusade, 283. 

Gregory IX., 403, 406. 

Gregory XL, removes to Rome, 
389; bull concerning Lollards, 
475. 

Gregory XII., abdicates papacy, 
391. 

Grimbald, brought from Gaul by 
Alfred, 190. 

Guienne, pnglish and French dis- 
pute possession of, 419. 

Guiscard, Roger, 341. 

Guthrum, peace of Alfred and, 185; 
becomes a Christian, 185. 

Hadrian, I., Ill, 130. 

Hamburg, pillaged by the Slavs, 
331 ; bishop of, grants charter for 
a colony, 331-333. 

Hanseatic League, 334. 

Harold Hardrada, defeated at 
Stamford Bridge, 234. 

Harold, son of Godwin, chosen 
king of England, 234; position 
disputed by William the Con- 
queror, 234; defeats Harold Har- 
drada, 234; takes station at 
Hastings, 234; valor and death, 
237. 

Hastings, English take position at, 
234; they prepare for battle, 235; 
the Normans prepare, 236; Wil- 
liam's strategem, 236-237. 

Heidelberg, University of, founded, 
345; charter of, 345-350.; mod- 
elled on University of Paris, 346; 



INDEX 



491 



internal government, 347-348; 
jurisdictiQii of bishop of Worms, 
348; exemptions enjoyed by 
students, 349; rates for lodgings, 
350. 

Hell, portrayed in the Koran, 103- 
104. 

Hengist, legendary leader of Sax- 
ons, 71; ancestry, 71. 

Henry of Champagne, grants fief 
to bishop of Beauvais, 215. 

Henry I. of England, charter of, 
298, 304, 306. 

Henry III. of England, concludes 
treaty of Paris with St. Louis, 
322. 

Henry V. of England, in Hundred 
Years' War, 440; marries daugh- 
ter of Charles VI., 441; awarded 
French crown by treaty of 
Troyes, 443. 

Henry I. of Germany, movement 
against the Slavs, 331. 

Henry III. of Germany, 273. 

Henry IV. of Germany, contro- 
versy opens with Gregory VII., 
264; wins battle on the Unstrutt, 
265; letter of Gregory VII. to, 
265-269 ; exhorted to confess and 
repent sins, 266, 268; reply to 
letter of Gregory VII., 269-272; 
rejects papal claim to temporal 
supremacy, 270; excommuni- 
cated by Gregory VII., 272; de- 
posed by him, 272-273; penance 
at Canossa, 273-277; oath of, 
277-278. 

Henry V. of Germany, succeeds 
Henry IV., 278; his spirit of in- 
dependence, 278; invasion of 
Italy, 278; compact with ^ Pas- 
chal II., 278; party to Concordat 
of Worms, 279-281. 

Henry VI. of Germany, 400, 402. 

Henry VII. of Germany, 433. 

Hermaneric, king of the Ostro- 
goths, 33. 

Hide, a land measure, 242. 

Hildebrand (see Gregory VII.). 



Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, 
165; description of ordeal by cold 
water, 200-201. 

Hippo, St. iVugustine bishop of, 112. 

Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglo- 
rum (by the Venerable Bede), 
scope and character, 68; quoted, 
69-72, 73-77; translation of, 69. 

Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum 
(by Gregory of Tours), scope and 
character, 48-49; quoted, 50-59. 

Historia Francorum qui ceperunt 
Jerusalem (by Raimond of 
Agiles), quoted, 201-202. 

Historia Ihcrosolimitana (by Robert 
the Monk), quoted, 284-288. 

Historia Hierosolimitana (by Ful- 
cher of Chartres), quoted, 290- 
291. 

Historiarum Libri IV. (by Nithar- 
dus), scope, 151; quoted, 151- 
154. 

Historiarum Libri IV. (by Richer), 
scope, 178; quoted, 178-180. 

Histoire de Saint Louis (by Join- 
ville), character, 312; quoted, 
313-324. 

Hollanders, receive charter from 
bishop of Hamburg, 332-333; 
fiscal obligations, 332; judicial 
immunity, 333. 

Holy Roman Empire, coronation of 
Charlemagne, 130-134; charac- 
ter and significance, 131-132; 
difficulty of holding together, 
149; disordered condition in 
ninth century, 157-163; Henry 
IV.'s position in, 264-265; ques- 
tion of lay investiture in, 265- 
281; Henry V., emperor, 278; 
Concordat of Worms, 278-281; 
weakening of central authority, 
334; chaotic condition, 334; rise 
of municipal leagues, 334; the 
Rhine League, 335-338; in 12th, 
13th, and 14th centuries, 398- 
416; Frederick Barbarossa at 
head of, 398 ; Peace of Constance, 
399-402; accession of Frederick 



492 



INDEX 



II., 403; Dante's attachment to, 
446; Dante's defense of in De 
Monarchia, 452-462. 

Homage, ceremony of, 216-217; a 
Norman definition of, 217; ren- 
dered to comit of Flanders, 218- 
219; ordinance of St. Louis on, 
219. 

Homer, Dante's knowledge of, 449; 
Petrarch interested in, 467. 

Homicide, in the Salic law, 65. 

Honorius III., St. Francis promises 
allegiance to, 375. 

Horace, alluded to by Petrarch, 
468. 

Horsa, legendary leader of Saxons, 
71; death, 71; ancestry, 71. 

Hote, defined, 329. 

House of Commons, origin of, 
307. 

House of Lords, origin of, 307. 

Hugh Capet, establishes Capetian 
dynasty, 177; Adalbero urges 
election as king, 178-180; crown- 
ed at Noyon, 180; extent of 
dominions, 180. 

Humanism, rise of, 445; Petrarch's 
love of the classics, 465-469. 

Humber River, 71, 74, 191. 

Hundred Years' War, causes, 418- 
419; Edward III. and the Flem- 
ings, 421-424; naval battle of 
Sluys, 424-427; battle of Crecy, 
427-436; siege and sack of 
Limoges, 436-439; treaty of 
Bretigny, 439, 441-442; treaty 
of Troyes, 440, 443. 

Huns, threaten the Goths, 33-34, 
42; characterized by Claudius 
Claudianus, 43; described by 
Ammianus Marcellinus, 43-46 ; 
physical appearance, 44; dress, 
44; mode of fighting, 45; no- 
madic character, 45; greed and 
quarrelsomeness, 46. 

lacinthus, 199. 

II Convito (by Dante), character 
of, 447; quoted, 447-452. 



Immunity, in Roman law, 210; 
feudal, 210-211; formula for 
grant to bishop, 211-212; grant 
to a monastery confirmed by 
Charlemagne, 212-214; in an 
East German colony, 333. 

Incendiarism, in the Salic law, 63; 
in the Burgundian law, 63. 

Ingeborg, wife of Philip Augustus, 
380-381. 

Ingelheim, 108. 

Inghen, Marsilius, rector of Uni- 
versity of Heidelberg, 345. 

Inheritance, in the Salic law, 66. 

Innocent III., King John's surren- 
der to, 297; confirms privileges 
of University of Paris, 341; ap- 
proves work of St. Francis, 362; 
lays interdict on France, 380- 
383. 

Innocent IV., 403, 454. 

In Rufinum (by Claudius Claudia- 
nus), quoted, 43. 

Interdict, nature of, 380; laid on 
France, 380-383. 

Interregnum, 334; end of, 409- 
410. 

Investiture, lay, 261; Henry IV. 's 
disregard of Gregory VII. 's de- 
crees concerning, 265; Paschal 
II. 's decree i^rohibiting, 278; 
agreement of 1111 concerning, 
278; settlement of by Concordat 
of Worms, 279-281. 

Ireland, Christianity in, 72. 

Irene, deposes Constantine VI., 
132. 

Irmensaule, destroyed by Charle- 
magne, 122. 

Irnerius, teacher of law at Bologna, 
340. 

Isabella, mother of Edward III., 
418-419; excluded from French 
throne, 420. 

Islam (see Koran, Mohammed). 

Italian (language), Dante's de- 
fense of, 446-452. 

Italy, Frederick Barbarossa and 
communes of. 398-399. 



INDEX 



493 



Jerusalem, captured by Arabs, 282; 
by the Seljuk Turks, 282. 

Jeufosse, Northmen whiter at, 167. 

Jocelyn d'Avalon, receives fief 
from Thiebault of Troyes, 216. 

John, bishop of Ravenna, 91. 

John the Old Saxon, brought from 
Gaul by Alfred, 191. 

John, of England, character of 
reign, 297; conference of mag- 
nates in opposition to, 298; ar- 
ranges truce with them, 299; 
takes the cross, 300; scorns the 
demands of the barons, 301 ; loses 
London, 302; consents to terms 
of Great Charter, 303. 

John XXIII, elected pope, 390; 
deposed, 391. 

John, king of Bohemia, 421. 

John II. of France, taken captive at 
Poitiers, 439 ; later career, 442. 

John the Fearless, duke of Bur- 
gundy, 440. 

Joinville, Sire de, sketch of, 312; 
biographer of St. Louis, 312. 

Judith of Bavaria, 149. 

Julian the Apostate, 271. 

Jurats, in Laon, 328. 

Jury, not provided for in Great 
Charter, 308. 

Justice, among the early Germans 
22; among the Franks, 61-67 
among the Saxons, 121-123 
Charlemagne's provision for in 
capitulary for the missi, 138- 
139; compurgation, 196; ordeal, 
196-197; administration of in the 
universities, 342, 344, 349. 

Jutes, settle in Kent, 70. 

Karlmann, son of Charles Martel, 
105. 

Kent, Saxons and Jutes settle in, 
70; Ethelbert, king of, 72, 74. 

Kingship, among the early Ger- 
mans, 26. 

Knut VI., king of Denmark, 380. 

Koran, origin of, 97; scope and 
character, 98; essential teach- 



ings, 98 ; translation, 99 ; quoted, 
99-104; opening prayer, 99; 
unity of God, 99; the resurrec- 
tion, 100; the coming judgment, 
100; reward of the righteous, 101 ; 
fate of the wicked, 101; pleas- 
ures of paradise, 102-103; tor- 
ments of hell, 103-104. 
Kutuz, defeats Tartars, 317. 

La Broyes, PhiHp VI. at castle of, 
435. 

La Ferte-sur-Aube, 216; St. Ber- 
nard at, 256. 

L'Ancienne. Coutume de Normandie, 
quoted, 217, 222-223, 224- 
225. 

Laon, 171 ; charter of, 327-328. 

Law, character of among the early 
Germans, 27, 59-60; codification 
under Roman influence, 60; the 
Sahc code, 60-67; of Alfred the 
Great, 194-195; revival of Ro- 
man, 339-340; study of at Uni- 
versity of Bologna, 340. 

Learning, revival under Charle- 
magne, 144-148; dechne after 
Charlemagne, 145; Alfred on 
state of in England, 191-194; 
decadence in England before the 
Conquest, 239; revival in thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries, 
445; Petrarch's love of the 
classics, 465-469. 

Legend of the Three Companio7is, 
quoted, 363-368, 376-378. 

Legnano, Frederick Barbarossa de- 
feated at, 399. 

Leo I. (the Great), elected pope, 
78; sermon on the Petrine su- 
premacy, 80-83. 

Leo III., Ill; driven from Rome, 
130; appeals to Charlemagne, 
130; crowns Charlemagne em- 
peror, 130, 132-134. 

Leo IV., 160. 

Leo IX., 261. 

Leo, author of the Mirror of Per- 
fection, 363. 



494 



INDEX 



Liberal Arts, place in Charle- 
magne's system of education, 
145; Alfred laments his ignor- 
ance of, 189, 339. 

Liher Regulce Pastoralis (by Pope 
Gregory I.), nature and value, 
91 ; translation of, 91 ; quoted, 
91-96; qualities of the ideal pas- 
tor, 91-93, 96; admonitions for 
various sorts of people, 94-95; 
translated by Alfred, 186, 193. 

Libri Miraculorum (by Gregory of 
Tours), quoted, 198-200. 

Liege, Henry IV. dies at, 278. 

Limoges, siege of by the Black 
Prince, 436-439. 

Limousin, 437. 

Lindisfarne, plundered by Danes, 
181. 

Little Flowers of St. Francis, 363. 

Loire, Clovis and Alaric meet on, 
55; Clovis's campaign beyond, 
55-56; Northmen on, 167. 

Lollards, tenets of, 475. 

Lombard League, formation of, 
399; Frederick Barbarossa's war 
upon, 399 ; provisions of Peace of 
Constance regarding, 400-402. 

Lombards, conquered by Charle- 
magne, 112, 115. 

London, sacked by Danes, 181; 
King John at, 299; army of the 
barons arrives at, 302; surren- 
dered to the barons, 302; treaty 
of, 439; Wyclif's doctrines con- 
demned in council at, 475. 

Lorris, model of franchise towns, 
327; charter of, 328-330. 

Lorsch, monastery at, 106; Lesser 
Annals of, 106. 

Lothair, Charles and Louis com- 
bine against, 150; defeated at 
Fontenay, 150; oaths of Strass- 
burg directed against, 151-154; 
makes overtures for peace, 154; 
lands received by treaty of 
Verdun, 155-156. 

Lotharingia, 155. 

Louis the Pious, capitulary on edu- 



cation, 145; divides the Empire, 
149. 

Louis the German, combines with 
Charles the Bald against Lothair, 
150-151; takes oath at Strass- 
burg, 152-153; lands received by 
treaty of Verdun, 155-156; ad- 
vances against the Wends, 158, 
159, 160; expeditions against the 
Bohemians, 160-161 ; defeats the 
Northmen, 166. 

Louis the Stammerer, 174. 

Louis v., last direct Carolingian, 
177. 

Louis VI. of France, ratifies char- 
ter of Laon, 327. 

Louis VII. of France,, 215; grants 
charter to Lorris, 327. 

Louis IX. of France, early career, 
311, 313-314; character, 311- 
312; difficulties at beginning of 
reign, 314; takes the cross, 314- 
315; emulated by prominent 
nobles, 315; in Cyprus, 316; re- 
ceives deputation from Khan of 
Tartary, 316-317; arrival in 
Egypt, 318; advances on Baby- 
lon (Cairo), 318; operations on 
the lower Nile, 318-322; nego- 
tiates treaty of Paris, 322; per- 
sonal traits, 323 ; methods of dis- 
pensing justice, 323-324. 

Louis X. of France, 419. 

Louis XL of France, seeks to re- 
voke Pragmatic Sanction of 
Bourges, 394. 

Louis IV., Emperor, allied with 
Edward III., 421. 

Luidhard, 75. 

Luitbert, brings sacred relics to the 
Freckenhorst, 163. 

Lyons, Council of, Frederick II. 
excommunicated at, 407. 

Mdcon, 248. 

Magdeburg, established, 331. 

Magna Charta, the winning of, 298- 
303; agreed to at Runnymede, 
303; importance and character, 



INDEX 



495 



303-304 ; translations, 305; quot- 
ed, 305-310; liberties of the Eng- 
lish church, 305; rate of reliefs, 
306; aids, 306; the Great Coun- 
cil, 307 ; writ de odio ct dtia, ZQT- 
308; personal liberties and pre- 
rogatives, 308; freedom of com- 
mercial intercourse, 308-309; 
means of enforcement, 309. 

Magna Moralia, written by Pope 
Gregory, 91. 

Mainz, a capital of Rhine League, 
.337; archbishop of, to summon 
electors of the Empire, 412. 

M alius, character, 61 ; summonses 
to, 61 ; complaint to be made be- 
fore, 63. 

Manichseus, 388. 

Manzikert, Eastern emperor de- 
feated at, 282. 

Mapes, Walter, Latin Poems at- 
tributed to, a source for medi- 
aeval students' songs, 352. 

Marcomanni, 32, 35. 

Marriage, of heiresses, right of lord 
to control, 224-225. 

Marseilles, St. Louis's companions 
embark at, 315. 

Marshall, William, surety for King 
John, 300-301. 

Martian, 69. 

Martin V., elected pope, 391; and 
Council of Siena, 395. 

Matilda, wife of William the Con- 
queror, 234. 

Matilda, Countess, ally of Gregory 
VII., 274. 

Matthew Paris, 292 ; Greater Chron- 
icle of, quoted, 405-409. 

Maurice, 73. 

May-field, character of in Charle- 
magne's time, 142. 

Mayor of the Palace, rise of, 105; 
office made hereditary, 105; ac- 
cession of Pepin the Short, 105; 
latter becomes king, 107. 
Merovingians, decadence of, 105- 
106; end with Childeric III., 105. 
Merovius, ancestor of Clovis, 50. 



Metz, 154; chet of, 410; electors of 
Empire to meet at, 416. 

Milan, Frederick Barbarossa de- 
stroys, 398-399. 

Ministeriales, functions of, 188. 

Missaticce, 135. 

Missidominici, 123; Charlemagne's 
capitulary for, 134; character and 
functions, 134-137; employed 
by Charles Martel and Pepin 
the Short, 135; to promulgate 
royal decrees, 141 ; abuses of, 175- 
176; in ninth century, 175-176. 

Moesia, Visigoths settle in, 34. 

Mohammed, sayings comprised in 
Koran, 97; principal teachings, 
98. 

Monastery, formula for grant of 
precarium by, 209-210; grant of 
immunity confirmed to, 212-214, 

Monasticism, rise of, 83-84; char- 
acter of in the East and West, 83 ; 
abbey of St. Martin established, 
83 ; Monte Cassino established by 
St. Benedict, 84; the Benedictine 
rule, 84-90; character and func- 
tions of the abbot, 84-86; pro- 
hibition of individual property- 
holding, 87; manual labor, 88; 
reading and study, 89; hospi- 
tality, 89; decadence in eighth 
and ninth centuries, 245; the 
Cluniac reform, 245-246; St. 
Bernard's reformation of, 250; 
founding of Clairvaux, 256-258. 

Monotheism, set forth in the 
Koran, 99. 

Monte Cassino, monastery founded 
at, 84; Karlmann withdraws to, 
105. 

Montlheri, St. Louis at, 314; Eng- 
lish army at, 439. 

Mortmain, prohibited by charter 
of Laon, 328. 

Murder, Charlemagne's legislation 
on, 141. 

Nantes, pillaged by Northmen, 165. 
Nazianzus, Gregory, bishop of, 93. 



496 



INDEX 



Nerva, 34. 

New Forest, of William the Con- 
queror, 244. 

Nicaea, Council of, 198; Seljuk 
Turks established at, 282; cru- 
saders converge at, 290. 

Nice, Visigoths advance toward, 38. 

Nicholas II., 269. 

Nile, St. Louis's operations on, 318. 

Nithardus, author of Historiarum 
Lihri IV., 151; career, 151. 

Nogaret, William of, captures 
Boniface VIII., 385. 

Nomenoe, conflicts with Charles 
the Bald, 167. 

Normans, rapid civilization of, 233 ; 
retain adventuresome disposi- 
tion, 233; in battle of Hastings, 
236-238; described by WiUiam 
of Malmesbury, 238-241. 

Normandy, ceded by Charles the 
Simple to RoUo, 172; improve- 
ment under Norman regime, 173; 
William the Bastard becomes 
duke of, 233-234; EngUsh and 
French dispute possession of, 419. 

Northampton, castle of, besieged 
by the English barons, 301. 

Northmen, in Frisia and Gaul, 159- 
160; in Frisia and Saxony, 162; 
burn church of St. Martin at 
Tours, 162, 167; motives of the 
Norse invasions, 163; pillage, 
Nantes, 165; winter at Rhe, 165; 
ascend Garonne, 166; in Spain, 
166; at Paris, 166; in Frisia and 
Brittany, 166; threaten Orleans, 
167; at Angers, 167; pillage Or- 
leans, 167; plunder Pisa, 168; 
besiege Paris, 168-171; bought 
off by Charles the Fat, 171; re- 
ceive Normandy from Charles 
the Simple, 172; become Chris- 
tians, 173. (See Danes.) 

Notre Dame, cathedral school of, 
340. 

Noyon, Hugh Capet crowned at, 
180. 

Nuremberg, diet of, 410. 



Odo, becomes king of France, 168, 
177; defense of Paris, 169-170; 
mission to Charles the Fat, 170- 
171. 

Odo, bishop of Bayeux, imprisoned 
by William the Conqueror, 243. 

Oppenheim, convention of, 274. 

Ordeal, nature of, 197; use among 
Germanic peoples, 197; various 
forms, 197; an Arian presbyter 
tested by, 198-200; by cold 
water described, 200-201; Peter 
Bartholomew subjected to by 
fire, 201-202. 

Origen, 387. 

Orleans, threatened by the North- 
men, 167; pillaged by them, 
167. 

Orosius, 186. 

Ostrogoths, fall before- the Huns, 
33. 

Otger, archbishop of Mainz, 152, 
160. 

Otto I. of Germany, 331. 

Otto II. of Germany, loses ground 
to the Slavs, 331. 

Otto III. of Germany, 403. 

Otto IV. of Germany, 401 ; crowned 
at Rome, 403; defeated at Bou- 
vines, 403. 

Oxford, Wyclif educated at, 474; 
banishes Lollards, 475. 

Paderborn, Prankish assembly at, 
119; Pope Leo III. meets Charle- 
magne at, 130. 

Pagus, 25. 

Paradise, portrayed in the Koran, 
102-103. 

Palace School, origin of, 144; en- 
largement by Charlemagne, 112- 
113, 144-145. 

Papacy, views on origin of, 78-79; 
reasons for growth, 78-79 ; theory 
of Petrine supremacy, 79; Pope 
Leo's sermon, 80-83; Gregory 
becomes pope, 73, 90; his literary 
efforts, 91 ; describes functions of 
secular clergy, 91-96; Pope Zach- 



INDEX 



497 



arias sanctions deposition of 
Merovingian line, 107; Pope Leo 
III. crowns Charlemagne em- 
peror, 130-134; Cluny's relations 
with, 249; Gregory VII. 's con- 
ception of, 262-264; Gregory 
VII. 's claim to authority over 
temporal princes, 266; Henry 
IV.'s rejection of claim of, 270; 
Calixtus II. agrees to Concordat 
of Worms, 278-281 ; relations of 
friars with, 361; St. Francis's 
attitude towards, 375, 377-378; 
and temporal powers in later 
Middle Ages, 380-397; contest of 
Innocent III. and Philip Au- 
gustus, 380-383 ; Boniface VIII. 's 
buU Unam Sanctam, 383-388; 
Babylonian Captivity, 383, 389; 
Great Schism, 389-390; declara- 
tions of Councils of Pisa and 
Constance, 390-393 ; provisions 
of Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges 
regarding powers of, 395-397; 
conflicts with Frederick II., 405- 
409; Dante enumerates theories 
in defense of, 453-455; defines 
true position of, 456-462; Wyc- 
lif's ideas concerning, 475-477. 

Paris, Clovis's capital, 57; his 
death at, 59; Northmen at, 166; 
Northmen prepare to besiege, 
168; attack upon, 169-171; im- 
portance of siege, 171 ; treaty of 
(1259), 322; treaty of (1396), 
439. 

Paris, University of, origin, 340; 
privileges granted to students by 
Phihp Augustus, 341, 343-345; 
Heidelberg modelled on, 346; 
case of Great Schism laid before, 
390; proposals regarding Schism, 
371-392. 

Paschal II., accession to papacy, 
278; decree prohibiting lay in- 
vestiture, 278; relations with 
Henry V., 278. 

Patrocinium, a prototjrpe of vas- 
salage, 204. 

Med. Hist.— 32 



Paul the Deacon, in Charlemagne's 
Palace School, 144. 

Paulinus of Aquileia, in Charle- 
magne's Palace School, 144. 

Pavia, taken by Charlemagne, 112. 

Peace of God, decreed by Church 
councils, 229; decree of Council 
of Toulouges, 229-232. 

Pelagius II., sends Gregory to 
Constantinople, 90. 

Penalties, in the Salic law, 62-65; 
in Charlemagne's De Partibus 
Saxonice, 121-123; in Alfred's 
legislation, 194-195; for viola- 
tion of an immunity, 214; for 
violation of Peace and Truce of 
God, 230-232. 

Pepin the Short, son of Charles 
Martel, 105; mayor of the pal- 
ace, 105; sends deputation to 
Pope Zacharias, 106; crowned by 
Pope Stephen III., 106; advised 
to take title of king, 107 ; anoint- 
ed by Boniface at Soissons, 107. 

Pepin, grandson of Louis the Pious, 
152, 158. 

Peter Bartholomew, subjected to 
ordeal by fire, 198, 201-202. 

Peter of Catana, minister-general 
of Franciscans, 370. 

Peter of Pisa, brought to Charle- 
magne's court, 112; in the Palace 
School, 144. 

Petrarch, career of, 462-463 ; part in 
the Renaissance, 463; writings, 
464-465 ; love of the classics, 465- 
469; letter to Posterity, 469-473. 

Petrine Supremacy, theory of, 79 
Pope Leo's sermon on, 80-83 
mediaeval acceptance of, 79 
theory of stated by Gregory 
VII., 267; allusion to in Unam 
Sanctam, 386; Dante's concep- 
tion of , 456-457. _ 

Pfahlburgers, provision of Rhine 
League concerning, 337. 

Philip II. (Augustus) of France, 
privileges granted to students 
by, 343-345; contest with In- 



498 



INDEX 



nocent III., 380-383; imposes 
Saladin tithe, 390. 

Philip IV. (the Fair) of France, 
contest with Boniface VIII., 383- 
385; convenes States General, 
385; sons of, 419. 

Philip V. of France, 419. 

Philip VI. of France, acquires the 
Dauphine, 395; accession of, 420; 
advances with army to Crecy, 
430-431 ; defeated at Crecy, 433- 
436. 

Philip of Hohenstaufen, 402-403. 

Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, 
440. 

PhiUp the Good, duke of Burgundy, 
440. 

Phihppa, wife of Edward III., 425. 

Piacenza, Council of, 283. 

Picts, menace the Britons, 68; 
Saxons called in against, 69; 
Saxons ally with, 71. 

Pilgrimages, to Jerusalem, 282-283. 

Pisa, Council of, convened, 390; 
declarations of, 392-393. 

Plato, Petrarch loans a volume of, 
469. 

Plegmund, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 190. 

Pliny the Elder, probably used by 
Taritus, 23. 

Poitiers, 55, 56; battle of, 418. 

Pontus, 35. 

Posidonius of Rhodes, probably 
used by Tacitus, 23. 

Prague, University of founded, 345. 

Precarium, nature of, 206; proto- 
type of the benefice, 206-207; 
example of grant, 207-210. 

Principes, among the early Ger- 
mans, 27-28; conduct in battle, 
28. 

Prudence, bishop of Troyes, 165. 

Quadi, 35, 
Quadrivium, 145, 339. 

Ragnachar, kinsman of Clovis, 51 ; 
slain, 58-59. 



Raymond of Agiles, account of or- 
deal by fire, 201-202. 

Raymond, count of Toulouse, letter 
to Arnold Atton, 227-228. 

Raymond of St. Gilles, 294-295. 

Ravenna, Dante's death at, 446. 

Reformation, foreshadowings of, 
474-477. 

Regalia, in Concordat of Worms, 
279-280; claimed by Frederick 
Barbarossa, 398; grant of to 
Lombard cities, 400-401. 

Relief, defined, 223, 225; origin, 
225-226; examples, 226; rate 
fixed by Great Charter, 306. 

Religion, of the early Germans, 21 ; 
rise of Mohammedanism, 97-104; 
the Koran quoted, 99-104; 
Charlemagne's zeal for, 113. 

Remigius, bishop of Rheims, 54. 

Renaissance (Carolingian) , condi- 
tions preceding, 144; Charle- 
magne's part in, 145-146. 

Renaissance (Italian), nature of, 
444-445; career of Dante, 446- 
447; Dante's defense of Italian 
as literary language, 446-452; 
Dante's conception of the im- 
perial power, 452-462 ; career and 
writings of Petrarch, 462-465; 
Petrarch's love of the classics, 
465-469; his letter to Posterity, 
469-473. 

Rerum Gestarum Libri qui Super- 
sunt (by Ammianus Marcellinus), 
quoted, 34-37, 38-41, 43-46. 

Reserve, nature of, 396. 

Resurrection, portrayed in the 
Koran, 100. 

Rhe, Northmen winter at, 165. 

Rhine, the Roman frontier, 19-20; 
trade in vicinity of, 30, 32. 

Rhine League, conditions influenc- 
ing formation, 334; instituted at 
Worms, 335; restrictions im- 
posed on members, 335; treat- 
ment of enemies of, 335-336; 
capitals, 337; governing body, 
337; military preparations, 338. 



INDEX 



499 



Richar, slain by Clovis, 59. 

Richer, author of Four Books of 
Histories, 178. 

Rivo Torto, St. Francis at, 
369. 

Robert I., 169, 177. 

Robert the Strong, 168, 177. 

Robert the Monk, version of Pope 
Urban's speech, 283-288. 

Robert of Artois, connection with 
Hundred Years' War, 423. 

Robertians, 168; rivalry with Caro- 
lingians, 177. 

Roger de Hoveden, 292. 

Roger of Wendover, account of the 
winning of -the Great Charter, 
298-303, 404. 

'Roland, Song of, 236. 

RoUo, receives Normandy from 
Charles the Simple, 172; bap- 
tized, 172; improvement of Nor- 
mandy, 173. 

Romans, conquest of Gaul by, 19; 
travelers and traders in Ger- 
many, 23, 32; defeat of Varus, 
32; put on the defensive, 32; 
early contact with the Ger- 
mans, 32-33; alarmed by re- 
ports of Gothic restlessness, 35; 
mistrtat the Visigoths, 37; de- 
feated at Adrianople, 39-41; 
withdraw garrisons from Britain, 
68. 

Roman Empire, filtration of Ger- 
mans into, 33; efforts to enlarge 
to the northward, 19, 32; Visi- 
goths desire to enter, 34; Visi- 
goths settle in, 36-37 ; relation of 
Charlemagne's empire to, 131- 
132. 

Romanus Diogenes, defeated at 
Manzikert, 282. 

Rome, development of papacy at, 
78-79 ; Pepin the Short sends dep- 
utation to, 106; Charlemagne's 
visits to. 111, 114; Charlemagne 
crowned at, 130, 132-134; plun- 
dered by the Saracens, 160. 

Romulus Augustulus, 131. 



Roncesvalles, Count Roland slain 
at, 236. 

Rorik, leader of Northmen, 161. 

Rouen, Odo, bishop of Bayeux, im- 
prisoned at, 243. 

Rudolph I., of Hapsburg, elected 
emperor, 409. 

Rudolfi Fuldensis Annales, quoted, 
156. 

Rufinus, companion of St. Francis, 
363. 

Rule, of St. Francis, drawn up, 373- 
374; quoted, 375-376. 

Runnymede, Great Charter pro- 
mulgated at, 303. 

Rupert I., founds University of 
Heidelberg, 345. 

Sacrosancta, decree of, 391. 

St. Albans, 298. 

St. Andrew, monastery of, estab- 
hshed, 90. 

St. Augustine, author of De Civi- 
tate Dei, 111. 

St. Benedict, career of, 84; service 
to European monasticism, 84; 
Rule of, 84-90. 

St. Bernard, times of, 250; founds 
Clairvaux, 250; biography of, 
251 ; birth and parentage, 251 ; 
early traits, 252; decides to be- 
come a monk, 252-253; at 
Chatillon, 254; enters Citeaux, 
254; obtains ability to reap, 255; 
piety and knowledge of Script- 
ures, 255-256; goes forth from 
Citeaux, 256; founds monastery 
at Clairvaux, 256-257. 

St. Bonaventura, author of official 
fife of St. Francis, 363. 

Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, treaty of, 172. 

St. David, 181. 

St. Dionysius, 387. 

St. Dominic, founder of Dominican 
order, 360. 

St. Edmund's magnates of Eng- 
land assemble at, 298, 

St. Francis, early career, 362; 
sources of information on, 362; 



500 



INDEX 



youthful follies, 364; redeeming 
qualities, 364; change in manner 
of life, 365-366; zeal in charity, 
366-367; begs alms at Rome, 
367; overcomes aversion to lep- 
ers, 368; refuses to dwell in an 
adorned cell, 369; humiUates 
himself publicly, 370-371; love 
for the larks, 371-372; regard 
for all created things, 372-373; 
draws up his Rule, 373-374; the 
Rule quoted, 375; the will of, 
376-378; attitude toward the 
existing Church, 375, 377-378; 
enjoins poverty and labor, 377- 
379. 

St. Germain des Pres, 165, 169. 

St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, 56. 

St. Jerome, translation of Script- 
ures, 193; cited by Petrarch, 468. 

St. Louis (see Louis IX.). 

St. Marcellus, Church of, 212. 

St. Martin (of Tours) , career of, 48 ; 
shrine of visited by pilgrims, 48; 
Clovis's respect for, 55, 57 ; church 
at Canterbury dedicated to, 77; 
monastery at Tours dedicated 
to, 83; church of burned by 
Northmen, 162, 167. 

St. Peter, Christ's commission to, 
79, 81. 

St. Peter, Church of, Charlemagne's 
gifts to, 114; Charlemagne 
crowned in, 133; fortified, 161. 

St. Quentin, Fulrad abbot of, 142; 
Dudo, dean of, 165. 

Savigny, granted as fief to bishop 
of Beauvais, 215. 

Saisset, Bernard, offends Philip the 
Fair, 384. 

Salerno, University of, 341. 

Salic law, cited, 25; date, 60; char- 
acter, 60; editions and transla- 
tion, 61; monetary system in, 61 ; 
summonses to meetings of the 
local courts, 61; theft, 62; rob- 
bery with assault, 63; incendiar- 
ism, 63; deeds of violence, 63; 
use of poison or witchcraft, 64; 



slander, 64; trespass, 65; homi- 
cide, 65; right of migration, 66; 
debt, 66; inheritance, 66-67; 
wergeld, 67. 

Saracens, plunder Rome, 160; Ital- 
ian league against, 160; renew 
devastation, 161 ; in possession 
of the Holy Land, 282; combats 
with crusaders, 292-296; project 
to turn the Tartars against, 317; 
operations against St. Louis, 
318-322; Frederick II. accused 
of friendly relations with, 405- 
407. 

Saxon Chronicle, quoted, 241-244. 

Saxons, conquer Britain while yet 
pagans, 49; infest British coasts, 
68; appear at Thanet, 69; called 
in by Britons, 69; settlement in 
Britain, 70; ally with Picts, 71; 
conquest of Britain, 71-72; pagan 
character, 72 ; Christianization 
begun, 73-77; in Charlemagne's 
day, 115-117; problem of con- 
quest, 115-116; lack of natural 
frontier, 117; faithlessness, 117; 
transplanted in part to Gaul, 
117; Charlemagne's jDeace with, 
118; massacre at Verden, 117; 
formula for acceptance of Chris- 
tianity, 118; Charlemagne's ca- 
pitularies concerning, 118-123; 
provisions for establishment of 
Christianity among, 120-122; 
penalties for persistence in pagan- 
ism, 122; fugitive criminals, 123 ; 
public assemblies, 123. 

Scheldt River, 58. 

Schism, Great, origin, 389-390; 
plans of University of Paris to 
end, 391-392; Councils of Pisa 
and Constance, 390-393; stops 
proceedings against Wyclif, 475. 

Schools (see Education). 

Scots, menace the Britons, 68; 
Saxons called in against, 69. 

Scutage, increased by King John, 
297; method of raising specified 
in Great Charter, 306. 



INDEX 



501 



Scythia, 43. 

Seine, Northmen on, 166, 168. 

Seligenstadt, Einhard at, 109. 

Selwood, Alfred at, 184. 

Senlis, meeting of Frankish mag- 
nates at, 178. 

Sens, given over to Northmen to 
plunder, 171. 

Septimania, conquered by Childe- 
bert, 57. 

Septuagint, 192. 

Serfs, fugitive, 138. 

Sergius II., 158. 

Senlac (see Hastings). 

Siegfred, leads siege of Paris, 168. 

Siena, Council of, 395. 

Sigibert the Lame, slain by son's 
agents, 57. 

Sigismund, appealed to by John 
XXIII., 391. 

Simony, 261; Henry IV. 's coun- 
cilors condemned for, 264. 

Slander, in the Salic law, 64. 

Slavery, among the early Germans, 
31. 

Slavs, location in Charlemagne's 
day, 330; German encroachment 
upon, 331. 

Sluys, naval battle of, 424-427. 

Soana, Hildebrand born at, 261. 

Soissons, capital of Syagrius's king- 
dom, 51; Clovis defeats Syagrius 
at, 51 ; episode of the broken vase, 
51-52; Pepin the Short anointed 
at, 107; council at, 381. 

Solidus, value, 61. 

Spain, invaded by Northmen, 166. 

Spanish March, annexed to Charle- 
magne's kingdom, 115. 

Speculum Perfectionis (by Brother 
Leo), quoted, 368-373. 

Speyer, Henry IV. flees from, 274. 

Stamford, English barons meet at, 
300. 

Stamford Bridge, Harold Hardrada 
defeated at, 234. 

Stephen, abbot of Citeaux, 254. 

Stephen III., crowns Pepin the 
Short, 106. 



Stephen IX., 261. 

Stephen of Blois, sketch of, 292; 
letter to his wife, 292-296; re- 
counts experiences of crusaders, 
293; describes siege of Antioch, 
293-296. 

Stephen Langton, archbishop of 
Canterbury, 298, 299. 

Strassburg, battle of won by 
Clovis, 49, 50, 53; results, 53-54; 
oaths of Charles and Louis at, 
150, 152-154; linguistic and his- 
torical significance, 150-151. 

Strassfurt, Frankish assembly at, 
142. 

Students, privileges granted to by 
Frederick I., 341-343; by Philip 
Augustus, 343-345; itinerant 
character of, 351-352; songs of, 
353-359. 

Subasio, Mount, St. Francis seeks 

, seclusion at, 370. 

Suetonius, 34; as model for Ein- 
hard, 109. 

Suevi, described by Caesar, 21. 

Swanwich, Danes defeated at, 183. 

Syagrius, "king of the Romans," 
50-51; defeated by Clovis at 
Soissons, 51 ; takes refuge with 
Alaric, 51; surrendered and put 
to death, 51. 

Sylvester II. (Gerbert), 283. 

Syria, overrun by Arabs, 282; 
partially recovered, 282; con- 
quered by Seljuk Turks, 282; 
described by Pope Urban, 286; 
crusaders in, 293-296. 

Tacitus, describes the Germans in 
his Germania, 23-31; sources of 
information, 23; object in writ- 
ing, 23-24. 

Tartary, Khan of, sends deputa- 
tion to St. Louis, 316-317. 

Taxation, not developed among 
the early Germans, 29. 

Templars, in England, 299; Turks 
attack, 319. 

TertuUian, 72. 



502 



INDEX 



Tescelin, father of St. Bernard, 251. 

Teutoberg Forest, Varus defeated 
at, 32. 

Teutones, 32. 

Thames, Danes appear on, 181. 

Thanet, Saxons appear at, 69; 
conceded to them by Vortigern, 
70; population, 75; Augustine 
lands at, 75. 

Theft, in the Salic law, 62; Charle- 
magne's legislation on, 141. 

Thiebault, count palatine of Troyes, 
grants fief to Jocelyn d'Avalon, 
216. 

Thrace, selected as a haven by the 
Visigoths, 35; conceded to them 
by Valens, 36. 

Toulouges, Council of, decrees 
Peace and Truce of God, 229- 
232. 

Toulouse, Visigothic capital, 51 ; 
Syagrius takes refuge at, 51. ' , 

Tours, Gregor}^, bishop of, 47-48; 
monastery and shrine of St. 
Martin at, 48; Alaric and Clovis 
meet near, 55; monastery at 
dedicated to St. Martin, 83; 
truce of, 439. 

Towns, lack of among the early 
Germans, 29; prevalence in 
Grseco-Roman world, 29; use of 
in France, 325; origins of, 325- 
326; classes of, 326-327; charter 
of Laon, 327-328; charter of 
Lorris, 328-330. 

Trajan, wars in the Rhine country, 
23. 

Trespass, in the Salic law, 65. 

Tribur, conference of German no- 
bles at, 274-275. 

Trivium, 145, 339. 

Troyes, county of, 215. 

Troyes, treaty of, negotiated, 440- 
441 ; provisions of, 443. 

Truce of God, decreed by church 
councils, 229; decree of Council 
of Toulouges, 229-232; reissued 
by Council of Clermont, 286. 

Turks, Seljuk, invasions of, 282; 



ravages depicted by Pope Urban, 
285; defeated by crusaders, 293; 
attack the Templars, 318; opera- 
tions against St. Louis, 318-322. 

Unam Sanctmn, issued by Boniface 
VIII., 383-385; quoted, 385-388. 

Universities, origins of in Middle 
Ages, 339 ; patronage of by 
Church and temporal powers, 
340; privileges granted to stu- 
dents by Frederick I., 341-343; 
by Phihp Augustus, 343-345; 
rise in Germany, 345; charter of 
Heidelberg, 345-350; student 
songs, 351-359. 

Unstrutt, Henry IV. 's victory at, 
265. 

Urban II., appealed to by Alexius 
Comnenus, 283; speech at Cler- 
mont, 283-288; appeal to the 
French, 284-285 ; enumerates 
reasons for a crusade, 285-287; 
results of speech, 287-288. 

Urban VI., approves foundation of 
University of Heidelberg, 346; 
elected pope, 389; Wychf's letter 
to, 475-477. 

Valens, Visigoths send embassy to, 
35; flattered into acceding to 
their request, 36; seeks to quell 
Visigothic uprising, 37-38; rash 
resolve to attack, 38; defeat, 41. 

Valentinian I., 35. 

Valentinian III., 69. 

Varus, defeated at the Teutoberg 
Forest, 32. 

Vassalage, origins, 204-205; rela- 
tions with patrocinium and 
comitatiis, 205; commendation 
defined, 205; formula for com- 
mendation, 205-206; relation to 
benefice, 207; obUgations of, 
220-221. 

Vecta, 71. 

Venice, treaty of, 399. 

Verden, massacre of Saxons at, 
117. 



INDEX 



503 



Verdun, treaty of, 154-156; terri- 
torial division by, 155. 

Vicarius, functions, 176. 

Victgilsus, 71. 

Vienna, University of, founded, 345. 

Villages, among the early Ger- 
mans, 30. 

Villes franches, nature of, 326- 
327. 

Villes libres, nature of, 326; Laon 
as an example, 327-328. 

Vincennes, 323. 

Viscount, functions, 176. 

Visigoths, invasion of the Roman 
Empire described by Ammianus 
Marcellinus, 32-41 ; receive Dacia 
from Aurelian, 33 ; threatened by 
the Huns, 33 ; select Thrace as a 
haven, 35; send embassy to 
Valens, 35; receive the desired 
permission, 36 ; cross the Danube, 
36-37; terms of the settlement, 
37; mistreated by the Romans, 
37; rise in revolt, 37; Valens re- 
solves to attack, 38; advance 
toward Nice, 38; defeat the 
Romans at Adrianople, 39-41; 
Alaric, king of, 51, 54-55; de- 
feated by Clovis, 56; Amalaric, 
king of, retreats to Spain, 56; 
new capital at Toledo, 56. 

Vita Caroli Magni (by Einhard), 
purpose, 109; value, 109; trans- 
lation of, 109, 116; quoted, 109- 
114, 116-118. 

VitoB Pontificorum Romanorum, 
quoted, 133-134. 

Vortigern, king of the Britons, 68; 
invites Saxons into Britain, 69. 

Vortimer, 71. 

Vulcan, worshipped by the Ger- 
mans, 21, 26. 

Vouille, Clovis defeats Alaric at, 56. 

Vulgate, 193; origin of, 468. 

Wager of battle, discouraged by 

the Church, 197. 
Wales, Christianity in, 72. 
Wardship, nature of, 224; condi- 



tions of prescribed by Norman 
custom, 224-225; conditions of 
defined in Great Charter, 306. 

Warfare, of the early Germans, 22, 
25-26, 28-29; of the Huns, 45; 
prevalence in feudal times, 228- 
229; efforts to restrict, 229; de- 
cUne of feudal, 428. 

Weapons, of the early Germans, 24; 
of the Huns, 45. 

Wedmore, treaty of, 185. 

Wends, 158, 159, 160. 

Werfrith, bishop of Worcester, 189; 
Alfred's letter to, 191-194. 

Wergeld, 65; in the Salic law, 67, 
141. 

Werwulf, of Mercia, 190. 

Westminster, William the Con- 
queror wears crown at, 242. 

Widukind, account of Saxon con- 
quest, 116. 

William of Aquitaine, letter of 
Fulbert of Chartres to, 220-221. 

William the Conqueror, power as 
duke of Normandy, 233; claims 
to throne of England, 234; pre- 
pares to invade England, 234; 
makes ready for battle, 236; his 
strategem at Hastings, 236-237; 
his valor in battle, 237; his gov- 
ernment described in the Saxon 
Chronicle, 241-244 ; religious zeal, 
242; extent of his authority, 243; 
forest laws, 244. 

WilUam, count of Flanders, hom- 
age and fealty to, 218-219. 

William of Holland, claimant to 
imperial title, 334. 

William of Jumieges, 165. 

William of Malmesbury, sketch of, 
235; author of Chronicle of the 
Kings of England, 235, 288. 

William the Pious, issues charter 
for monastery at Cluny, 245; 
motives for benefaction, 247: 
land and other property ceded, 
247-248. 

William of St. Thierry, biographer 
of St. Bernard, 251, 258, 



504 



INDEX 



Wilton, Alfred fights the Danes at, 
182. 

Winchester, William the Conqueror 
wears crown at, 242; King John 
holds court at, 299. 

Witan, 194. 

Witchcraft, in the Salic law, 64. 

Woden, 26, 49, 50, 71, 72, 119, 197. 

Worcester, Werfrith, bishop of, 189. 

Worms, 154; council at decrees 
that Gregory VII. should abdi- 
cate, 270; diet at, 279; Concor- 



dat of, 279-281; Rhine League 
formed at, 335; with Mainz, to 
be League's capital, 337; juris- 
diction of bishop of over Uni- 
versity of Heidelberg, 348, 350. 
Wychf, career of, 474-475. 

Zacharias, consulted by Pepin the 
Short, 106; advises him to take 
title of king, 107. 

Zaid, collects sayings of Moham- 
med, 97. 



ESSENTIALS IN ANCIENT 
HISTORY 

From the Earliest Records to Charlemagne. By ARTHUR 
MAYER WOLFSON, Ph.D., First Assistant in His- 
tory, DeWitt Clinton High School, New York. In 
consultation with ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, 
LL.D., Professor of History, Harvard University 

I1.5O 



THIS volume belongs to the Essentials in History Series, 
which follows the plan recommended by the Committee 
of Seven, and adopted by the College Entrance Examina- 
tion Board, and by the New York State Education Depart- 
ment. The pedagogic apparatus is amply sufficient for any 
secondary school. 

^ The essentials in ancient history are presented as a unit, 
beginning with the earliest civilization in the East, and end- 
ing with the establishment of the Western Empire by Charle- 
magne. More attention is paid to civilization than to mere 
constitutional development, the latter being brought out in the 
narrative, rather than as a series of separate episodes. 
^ A departure has been made from the time-honored method 
of carrying the subject down to the end of Greek political life 
before beginning the story of Rome. The history of the two 
civilizations is not entirely distinct ; hence, it has seemed wise, 
after completing the account of the life and work of Alexan- 
der, to tell the story of the beginnings of Rome. Afterwards 
the history of the East is resumed, and carried on to the point 
where it merges into that of Rome. Should any teacher, 
however, prefer the old method of treating the two nations, 
he has only to take up Chapters XXIV and XXV before 
Chapters XVIII to XXIII. The Roman Empire, a very 
important but much neglected period of history, is brought 
out in its just proportions, and with reference to the events 
which had the greatest influence. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(137) 



ESSENTIALS IN ENGLISH 
HISTORY 

From the Earliest Records to the Present Day. By ALBERT 
PERRY WALKER, A.M., Master in History, Eng- 
lish High School, Boston. In consultation with ALBERT 
BUSHNELL HART, LL.D., Professor of History, 
Harvard University 

I1.50 



LIKE the other volumes of the Essentials in History Series, 
J this text-book is intended to form a year's work in 
secondary schools, following out the recommendation 
of the Committee of Seven, and meeting the requirements of 
the College Entrance Examination Board, and of the New 
York State Education Department. It contains the same 
general features, the same pedagogic apparatus, and the same 
topical method of treatment. The text is continuous, the 
sectional headings being placed in the margin. The maps 
and illustrations are worthy of special mention. 
^ The book is a model of good historical exposition, un- 
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development of the British Empire are vividly described, and 
the relation of cause and effect is clearly brought out. 
^ The treatment begins with a brief survey of the whole 
course of English history, deducing therefrom three general 
movements: (i) the fusing of several races into the Eng- 
lish people ; ( 2 ) the solution by that people of two great 
problems: free and democratic home government, and prac- 
tical, enlightened government of foreign dependencies ; and 
(3) the extreme development of two great fields of industry, 
commerce and manufacture. The narrative follows the 
chronological order, and is full of matter which is as interest- 
ing as it is significant, ending with a masterly summary of 
England's contribution to civilization. 




C134) 



ESSENTIALS IN AMERICAN 
HISTORY 

From the Discovery to the Present Day. By ALBERT 
BUSHNELL HART, LL.D.. Professor of History, 
Harvard University 



PROFESSOR HART v^^as a member of the Committee 
of Seven, and consequently is exceptionally qualified to 
supervise the preparation of a series of text-books which 
carry out the ideas of that Committee. The needs of sec- 
ondary schools, and the entrance requirements to all colleges, 
are fully met by the Essentials in History Series. 
'^ This volume reflects in an impressive manner the writer's 
broad grasp of the subject, his intimate knowledge of the 
relative importance of events, his keen insight into the cause 
and effect of each noteworthy occurrence, and his thorough 
familiarity with the most helpful pedagogical features — all of 
which make the work unusually well suited to students. 
^ The purpose of the book is to present an adequate descrip- 
tion of all essential things in the upbuilding of the country, 
and to supplement this by good illustrations and maps. 
Political geography, being the background of all historical 
knowledge, is made a special topic, while the development of 
government, foreign relations, the diplomatic adjustment of 
controversies, and social and economic conditions have been 
duly emphasized. 

^ All sections of the Union, North, East, South, West, and 
Far West, have received fair treatment. Much attention is 
paid to the causes and results of our various wars, but only the 
most significant battles and campaigns have been described. 
The book aims to make disdnct the character and public 
services of some great Americans, brief accounts of whose lives 
are given in special sections of the text. Towards the end a 
chapter sums up the services of America to mankind. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

C119) 



GREEK AND ROMAN 
HISTORIES 

By WILLIAM C. MOREY, Professor of History 
and Political Science, University of Rochester 

Each, li.oo 



THESE two books present a somewhat fuller course than 
that given in the author's single volume. Outlines of An- 
cient History. Each is written in a simple, interesting 
style, and is distinguished by the same pedagogical features, 
such as the topical method, progressive maps, etc. 
^ MOREY'S OUTLINES OF GREEK HISTORY, 
which is introduced by a brief sketch of the progress of civil- 
ization before the time of the Greeks among the Oriental 
peoples, pays greater attention to the civilization of ancient 
Greece than to its political history. The author has endeav- 
ored to illustrate by facts the most important and distinguishing 
traits of the Grecian character ; to explain why the Greeks 
failed to develop a national state system, although successful 
to a considerable extent in developing free institutions and an 
organized city state ; and to show the great advance made by 
the Greeks upon the previous culture of the Orient. 
^ MOREY'S OUTLINES OF ROMAN HISTORY 
gives the history of Rome to the revival of the empire by 
Charlemagne. Only those facts and events which illustrate 
the real character of the Roman people, which show the 
progressive development of Rome as a world power, and 
which explain the influence that Rome has exercised upon 
modern civilization, have been emphasized. The genius of 
the Romans for organization, which gives them their dis- 
tinctive place in history, is kept prominently in mind, and 
the kingdom, the republic, and the empire are seen to be but 
successive stages in the growth of a policy to bring together 
and organize the various elements of the ancient world. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(136) 



OUTLINES OF GENERAL 
HISTORY 

By FRANK MOORE COLBY, M.A., recently Professor 
of Economics, New York University 

^1.50 



THIS volume provides at once a general foundation for 
historical knowledge and a stimulus for further reading. 
It gives each period and subject its proper historical 
perspective, and provides a narrative which is clear, con- 
nected, and attractive. From first to last only information 
that is really useful has been included. 

^ The history is intended to be suggestive and not exhaus- 
tive. Although the field covered is as wide as possible, the 
limitations of space have obliged the writer to restrict the 
scope at some points ; this he has done in the belief that it is 
preferable to giving a mere catalogue of events. For exam- 
ple, the history of the United States has not been included, 
while that of the non-Aryan peoples, especially since the 
beginning of the mediaeval period, has not received the 
attention that has been given to the races to which the lead- 
ing nations of the world belong. The chief object of 
attention in the chapters on mediaeval and modern history is 
the European nations, and in treating them an ejFort has 
been made to trace their development as far as possible in a 
connected narrative, indicating the causal relations of events. 
Special emphasis is given to the great events of recent times. 
^ The book is plentifully supplied with useful pedagogical 
features. The narrative follows the topical manner of treat- 
ment, and is not over-crowded with names and dates. The 
various historical phases and periods are clearly shown by a 
series of striking progressive maps, many of which are printed 
in colors. The illustrations are numerous and finely exe- 
cuted. Each chapter closes with a summary and synopsis 
for review, covering all matters of importance. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



COMPOSITION-RHETORIC 

$I.OO 

By STRATTON D. BROOKS, Superintendent of Schools, 
Boston, Mass., and MARIETTA HUBBARD, for- 
merly English Department, High School, La Salle, 111. 



THE flindamental aim of this volume is to enable pupils 
to express their thoughts freely, clearly, and forcibly. 
At the same time it is designed to cultivate literary 
appreciation, and to develop some knowledge of rhetorical 
theory. The work follows closely the requirements of the 
College Entrance Examination Board, and of the New York 
State Education Department. 

^ In Part One are given the elements of description, narra- 
tion, exposition, and argument ; also special chapters on letter- 
writing and poetry. A more complete and comprehensive 
treatment of the four forms of discourse already discussed is 
fiirnished in Part Two. In each part is presented a series of 
themes covering these subjects, the purpose being to give the 
pupil inspiration, and that confidence in himself which comes 
from the frequent repetition of an act, A single new princi- 
ple is introduced into each theme, and this is developed in the 
text, and illustrated by careflilly selected examples. These 
principles are referred to again and again as the subject 
grows. 

^ The pupils are taught how to correct their own errors, 
and also how to get the main thought in preparing their 
lessons. Careflil coordination with the study of literature 
and with other school studies is made throughout the book. 
^ The modern character of the illustrative extracts can not fail 
to interest every boy and girl. Concise summaries are given 
following the treatment of the various forms of discourse, and 
toward the end of the book there is a very comprehensive and 
compact summary of grammatical principles. More than usual 
attention is devoted to the treatment of argument. The ap- 
pendix contains the elements of form, the figures of speech, etc. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(88) 



TEXT-BOOKS ON ALGEBRA 

By WILLIAM J. MILNE, Ph.D., LL.D., President 
New York State Normal College, Albany, N. Y. 



ACADEMIC ALGEBRA ^1.25 



MORE extended and more comprehensive than Milne's 
High School Algebra, this work not merely states the 
principles and laws of algebra, but establishes them 
by rigorous proofs. The student first makes proper infer- 
ences, then expresses the inferences briefly and accurately, 
and finally proves their truth by deductive reasoning. The 
definitions are very complete, and special applications and 
devices have been added. The examples are numerous and 
well graded, and the explanadons which accompany the 
processes, giving a more intelligent insight into the various 
steps, constitute a valuable feature. The book meets the 
requirements in algebra for admission to all of the colleges. 



ADVANCED ALGEBRA ^1.50 

THIS book covers fullv all college and scientific school 
entrance requirements in advanced algebra. While 
the earlier pages are identical with the author's 
Academic Algebra, more than 160 pages of new matter 
have been added. Among the new subjects considered 
are : incommensurable numbers, mathematical induction, 
probability, simple continued fractions, the theory of num- 
bers, determinants, convergency of series, exponential and 
logarithmic series, summation of series, and the theory of 
equations, including graphical representation of functions of 
one variable, and approximation to incommensurable roots. 
Over 5,000 unsolved exercises and problems are included in 
the book. The treatment is flail, rigorous, and scientific. 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(62) 



INTRODUCTION TO 

AMERICAN LITERATURE 

^ 1 .00 

By BRANDER MATTHEWS, A.M., LL.B., Professor 

of Literature, Columbia University 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, in an extended and ap- 
preciative review in The Bookman says: "The book is a 
piece of work as good of its kind as any American scholar 
has ever had in his hands. It is just the kind of book that 
should be given to a beginner, because it will give him a clear 
idea of what to read, and of the relative importance of the 
authors he is to read ; yet it is much more than merely 
a book for beginners. ' Any student of the subject who 
wishes to do good work hereafter must not only read Mr. 
Matthews' s book, but must largely adopt Mr. Matthews' s 
way of looking at things, for these simply written, unpreten- 
tious chapters are worth many times as much as the pon- 
derous tomes which contain what usually passes for criticism; 
and the principles upon which Mr. Matthews insists with 
such quiet force and good taste are those which must be 
adopted, not only by every student of American writings, 
but by every American writer, if he is going to do what is 
really worth doing. There is little room for division of 
opinion as to the excellence of Mr. Matthews' s arrangement 
as a whole, and as tG the soundness of his judgments. He 
preserves always the difficult balance between sympathy and 
justice. ... In short, Mr. Matthews has produced an 
admirable book, both in manner and matter, and has made a 
distinct addition to the very literature of which he writes." 
•|y The book is amply provided with pedagogical features. 
Each chapter includes questions for review, bibliographical 
notes, facsimiles of manuscripts, and portraits, while at the end 
of the volume is a brief chronology of American literature. 



AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

(91) 

X 8 38 "4 











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